Earlier this year, a TV production team came to Pasco County and started filming an adaptation of the beloved novel, “A Land Remembered.”
Now, Pasco County is ensuring that even more of the show will be filmed within its borders, specifically with what’s left of “old Florida nature.”
On June 2, the County Commission approved giving the producers of the TV show $250,000 so they would return and film more of the show next year.
After hearing a presentation from a producer and seeing on-set and production photos from the four-episode first season, which has been filmed all over Florida and Pasco County, the board voted 5-0 in favor.
District 3 commissioner Kathyrn Starkey said the board was passionate about having the production return to continue to show off the remaining nature, particularly in the Dade City, Withlacoochee and Lacoochee areas in the northeastern part of the county.
Earlier this year, Tampa producer, writer and director Todd Wiseman Jr., spent Day 21 of 40 of production on Vogel Ranch with hundreds of actors, extras, wardrobe people, effects artists, production assistants and historians preparing to shoot the Battle of Olustee in the woods. Other places in the state have been used, such as the town of Micanopy in Alachua County being transformed into 1850s Georgia to shoot flashback scenes.
From the 1984 best-selling historical novel by Patrick D. Smith, “A Land Remembered” chronicles three generations of the MacIvey family in frontier Florida from the mid-19th to the 20th century. Over the course of the book, the family turns swamp, citrus and unwanted land into a multigenerational commercial empire so successfully the results lead to the decline of the natural place they so loved. The book is integrated into the Florida school system, particularly at the fourth-grade level, where, according to the University of Florida, more than 15,000 students statewide use it as a study of pioneer history, Florida ecology and agriculture.
According to Deadline, the production already has a budget of $25 million and has also received $500,000 each from the state of Florida and Film Tampa Bay.
The series has been privately financed and the plan is to take it to high-profile entertainment markets, with the door open to more seasons.
However, the production has not been without its hiccups.
In April, the producers opted not to attempt shooting scenes at Fort De Soto Park after environmental advocates took issue with the proposal, saying it could disrupt sea turtle and shorebird nests at the park’s fragile east beach. The scenes would have included cattle, oxen, horses and pigs, as well as rough-hewn animal pens and small human domiciles and part of a flashback episode.
Additionally, PETA announced it was investigating a tip from an on-set whistleblower about the production killing snakes and using dead raccoons as props, an accusation Wiseman vehemently denied to the Tampa Bay Times.
The airing of the show is aimed for an early 2027 release.