Producer of FX's 'Justified' recalls 'boom' times here
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Timothy Olyphant stars in FX's "Justified" as a deputy U.S. marshal who is a speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick kind of guy.
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PASADENA, Calif. -- Filming the pilot episode for the upcoming FX series "Justified" in Western Pennsylvania last spring, executive producer Graham Yost came away with a specific memory of Pittsburgh while staying at the Omni William Penn Downtown.
"There were an incredible amount of fireworks going off, it seemed like every night," Yost said. "They'd echo around all the buildings and I could see them out my [hotel room] window."
While there were fireworks in Pittsburgh, there was more of a slow burn on the set of the pilot, which was largely filmed outside of Pittsburgh. Timothy Olyphant stars in "Justified" as deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens who is re-assigned to Harlan, Ky., after a broad daylight shooting in Miami that he deems "justified." Olyphant's Givens is an old-school hero, a speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick kind of guy.
"I like that Raylan doesn't have to yell," Yost said.
The show's setting -- Western Pennsylvania plays rural Kentucky in the pilot -- appealed to Yost.
"It's a different place to do a show," he said.
Filmed under the title "Fire in the Hole," the name of the Elmore Leonard short story the pilot is based on, the project was briefly known as "Lawman" until A&E came up with the docu-reality show "Steven Seagal Lawman."
Leonard is an executive producer on "Justified," something he said is honorary -- he's not working in the writers' room -- but he's clearly a fan of the program. He plans to write another Givens short story that he said producers of the TV show will be welcome to adapt.
Yost said there are no plans to come back to Pittsburgh for additional filming during season one; maybe in season two if the show is successful. For episodes beyond the pilot, the production crew is doing its best to make areas around Los Angeles resemble Kentucky.
"Frankly, we've been waiting for the rain to come and green up Los Angeles," Yost said. He praised the Pittsburgh crew that worked on the pilot and said he offered some of them jobs to work on the series in Los Angeles but found many were working on movies filming in Western Pennsylvania last year.
For the pilot, "Justified" used Kittanning to play parts of Harlan, and also filmed in Washington, Pa. No specific town in California has been used as Harlan.
First Published January 18, 2010 12:00 am
