Alfie Allen & Jack Gleeson Reunite for 'Safe Harbor'

The streaming wars have frustrated many consumers, creating too many streaming services that cost too much, and cratering longstanding production studios who didn’t move savvily enough when the time to shift came. However, there are real tangible benefits to overturning the status quo, and the diversification of voices given opportunities by the rise of new platforms cannot be overstated. That includes American artists and writers whose pitch ideas are passed over by American investors, like Mark Williams, who found a safe harbor for his show, Safe Harbor, in the Netherlands.

Williams (not to be confused with the other Mark Williams, who stars in Father Brown) is an American writer and producer best known as the co-creator of Netflix’s hit series Ozark. After being inspired by an article about how crime families now need IT departments, in particular, a case that finally went to trial in 2023, in which hackers were instrumental in pulling off a major drug smuggling operation, Williams pitched the series. However, with no takers in the U.S., he partnered up with European production studios Submarine and Night Train Media and took his scripts to film in Denmark and Belgium.

Williams admitted the experience was a bit rocky initially: “It was never to the scale I’m used to. It was more about me getting used to their [European] system, which works very well but is just different.” However, it gave him access to casting major British stars well-known in the U.S. for their turns in Game of Thrones: Alfie Allen and Jack Gleeson. The end result is a series that looks like it should hail from the BBC or Netflix and will fit in well with other British-Euro series that cross the pond. All it needs is a distributor.