Justified: City Primeval filming halted by real life rolling gun battle

Justified: City Primeval
Timothy Olyphant

Justified: City Primeval was forced to halt filming when two cars engaging in a rolling gun battle barreled through the filming barricades.

The crew was preparing to film a scene at Douglass Park on Ogden Ave from California Ave to Sacramento Ave and had closed both ends with barricades from midnight until 4 a.m.

At about 12:49 a.m. early Thursday morning on the west side of Douglass Park two vehicles, engaged in gun battle, penetrated the perimeter of the film location by barreling through the barricades in the 1400 block of S. Sacramento Avenue. No one was injured on the set but several crew members dove for cover and shell casings were found on the set later when the police investigated the incident.

According to the Chicago Police there were reportedly four vehicles shooting at each other in total. A white Dodge Charger, a gray minivan, a white Dodge Durango, and a gray Audi, but only two were involved in the incident on the set of Justified: City Primeval.

Deadline reported that star Timothy Olyphant, who is reprising his role as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens shielded a production assistant from the gunfire. While no members of the cast or crew were injured, according to Chicago Police, a 19-year-old female victim in the passenger seat of one of the vehicles was shot in the leg by an unidentified offender in a white Dodge Charger. The victim was taken to Mt. Sinai where she is listed in good condition.

In a statement to the the press Chicago Police said:

“The Chicago Police Department is committed to ensuring members of the city’s vibrant film and television community are able to do their jobs safely. We work in close coordination with the Chicago Film Office, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications to ensure production crews have the resources necessary to feel safe and secure while filming in the city’s neighborhoods.”

Justified: City Primeval has been filming in Chicago since the beginning of May and is expected to continue filming through late August. The production office and interior sets are at Chicago Studio City.

The original Justified ran for six seasons on FX from 2010-2015 and won two out of the eight Emmy Award nominations the show received, and also won a Peabody Award. The series was based on Elmore Leonard’s novella Fire in the Hole, with Leonard consulting with the producers until his death in 2013.

The new 8-episode limited spinoff series is titled Justified: City Primeval and is inspired by Leonard’s novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. The series picks up seven years following the end of FX’s critically-acclaimed Justified, returning to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ (played by original series star Timothy Olyphant) story after he left Kentucky for his new home base in Miami. Viewers can expect to find Raylan balancing life as a marshal and part-time father of 14-year-old Willa, who will be played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian Olyphant. Aunjanue Ellis, Boyd Holbrook, Adelaide Clemens, Marin Ireland, Norbert Leo Butz, Victor Williams, and Vondie Curtis Hall co-star in the series.

A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends Givens to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, deemed The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already once slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and is set out to do so again.

The cast and crew are expected to return to work on Monday to resume filming.


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