Filming is under way in Hudson, Florida, on a television adaptation of Patrick Smith’s much-loved novel A Land Remembered, with showrunner Todd Wiseman Jr insisting the story must be made in the state where it is set.
The independent production is using local actors, crew members, investors and businesses to recreate Florida’s frontier past, after Hollywood executives suggested moving the shoot to Georgia.
Florida novel brought to life in Hudson
The series follows three generations of the MacIvey family as they build a cattle and citrus empire across Florida between 1858 and 1968.
Authentic sets have been constructed in rural Hudson, including chicken coops and palm-frond roofs, while real animals and the surrounding woodland are being used to give the production a distinctly Floridian setting.
Wiseman secured $500,000 from the Florida Legislature and a further $500,000 from the Tampa Bay Film Commission to help finance the project. Cattle ranchers, grove owners, business leaders and former politicians have also invested in the adaptation.
Keebler Straz Eason, an executive producer and investor, described Smith’s novel as one of the most important works of literature in Florida’s history.
The project’s official website describes the adaptation as a three-season streaming series, with four episodes planned for each season. ([alandremembered.com](https://alandremembered.com/a_land_remembered_movie/?utm_source=openai))
A 2½-minute battle scene
One of the most ambitious sequences recreates an attack on a Spanish settlement by Calusa warriors, set about 300 years before the main events of the novel.
The opening scene depicts Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon being fatally wounded in his tent as gunfire, arrows and runaway horses erupt around him. Rather than using a dolly, a single camera operator ran through the set to capture the action in one continuous shot.
The sequence took a month to prepare and required a 12-hour filming day involving about 200 cast and crew members.
Local people have taken roles both in front of and behind the camera. Tampa real estate investor Carlos Alfonso plays Ponce de Leon, while local business leaders and executives appear as extras in period costume and make-up.
Construction workers have helped build the sets, including junior crew member Katie Carlsen, who said the production’s depiction of Florida’s wild landscape underlined the importance of protecting it from development.
Series being offered to broadcasters
Producers have not yet announced a streaming service or television network for the finished episodes, and no firm premiere date has been set.
Executives are expected to begin presenting the series to major broadcasters and platforms once the episodes have been edited. The team is aiming for a release later in 2027, with principal photography due to conclude in the first half of that year.
Wiseman has also used the production to call for Florida to restore tax incentives for film and television projects made in the state.
“If I’m the state, and I’m writing a check to a film or TV show, I want something in return,” he said. “I think A Land Remembered is a good example of a project that’s going to show a new part of Florida and drive tourism to Florida.”
For the filmmakers, keeping the production in Florida is central to the adaptation’s purpose: to present the state’s history through its own landscapes, workers and communities.
