On Wednesday night, a real life gun battle crashed into the set of the Justified sequel television series, Justified: City Primeval, shutting down the production. January 2022 saw FX announce the revival of the popular neo-Western crime drama, Justified, starring Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins, and Nick Searcy. The series focused on the rugged Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens' (Olyphant) return to Harlan County, Kentucky where he revisits his past while using his own style of justice to quell the criminal element of his hometown. Based on author Elmore Leonard's novel, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, Olyphant reprises his role as Givens for FX's sequel limited series and is joined by Daredevil's Vondie Curtis Hall, Under the Banner of Heaven's Adelaide Clemens, and King Richard's Aunjanue Ellis.
Although sets generally have security to keep the cast and crew safe from any intruders, recent events have proven that no one is safe during production. Danger can come from within the set itself, as seen with last year's Rust shooting incident that left the director Joel Souza injured and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead due to negligence, but also from local crime. Early Tuesday morning, crew member Johnny Pizarro, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant while sitting in his car on the set of Law & Order: Organized Crime in Brooklyn, NY.
Per Variety, another shooting has occurred on a television set, this time during the production of the Justified sequel limited series, Justified: City Primeval. While shooting in the city of Chicago near Douglass Park, two cars engaged in a rolling gun battle broke through a barricade for the set. No members of the cast or crew were reported injured. As a result of the shooting, filming has been temporarily put on hold and is scheduled to continue on Monday.
Similar to the Law & Order: Organized Crime incident, the shooting was perpetrated by an outside party that was unaffiliated with the production as opposed to the Rust tragedy where the shooting was committed by a member of the cast. Due to the fact that no one was injured, production of the sequel series can continue relatively soon. With the investigation still ongoing, more details regarding the perpetrators will likely be revealed within the coming weeks.
It is a miracle that no one was shot or injured at all during the gun battle in the brazen attack. Although Chicago is known for its high level of crime, it still comes as a shock that a protected set is victim to the senseless violence. With Justified: City Primeval set to continue filming on Monday, hopefully security has been increased so such an incident will not happen again.
Source: Variety