Police Open Fire On A Movie Set, One Crew Member Shot
A film shoot in the Dominican Republic went very bad.
This article is more than 2 years old
A severe and very scary occurrence happened this week on the set of the film Geechee. Police in the Dominican Republic opened fire on a convoy of cars that contained members of the film’s crew. One of those crew members (who has been left unidentified) was shot several times by the officers.
Thankfully, the unnamed crew member only suffered minor, non-lethal injuries. That crew member has been discharged from the local hospital and has already flown back home. No one else on the crew sustained any serious injuries. Yes, a movie set shooting has officially taken place.
According to sources at Deadline, the shooting took place on Wednesday, September 2. Their coverage goes on to state that the attack from officers was likely a case of mistaken identity. “Undercover local drug enforcement agents pursued and then opened fire on a group of cars containing film crew who were on a location recce.” The initial encounter occurred at Lantica Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios where the production for Geechee is being housed. Eventually, the confrontation continued to the studios where the Dominican Republic police officers held crew members at gunpoint. It was soon cleared up that they were innocent and the situation ended.
Lantica Media, a production service that is involved in the production of Geechee, put out this statement after the frightening ordeal:
“Lantica Media has requested a thorough investigation from the national authorities. The authorities have been cooperative and are working to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again in the future. For Lantica Media, the top priority is to guarantee the safety and well-being of its productions, this being the first time that an event of this nature has occurred in any of the 50 plus productions serviced by Lantica since its inception.”
The entire production for Geechee has been shut down until further notice. As of this writing, there has not been a decision made regarding the return of production to the Dominican Republic. The majority of the crew have reportedly left the Dominican Republic and have returned home until the studio makes a decision on whether to resume filming there or to relocate the production for the remainder of filming. There are four more weeks of shooting still scheduled.
The project began production on August 19 and has been subjected to the curfew the Dominican Republic has in place to help combat the spread of COVID-19. The crew supposedly had all necessary permits that have been issued by authorities, so this doesn’t appear to be the motivation behind the police shooting.
Geechee is a thriller starring Andrea Riseborough (Mandy) as a successful New York scientist who leaves the big city in order to find a more peaceful life with her son. They relocate to the Sea Islands off the Atlantic Coast. Unfortunately, she begins to be haunted by the souls of the other island residents. The film is written and directed by up-and-coming filmmaker DuBois Ashong. It was originally scheduled to start shooting earlier this March but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. As of now, no release date has been set for Geechee.
