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.
Here's the series synopsis:
The series follows gifted hacker Tobias and his ambitious best friend Marco, who are intent on cracking the tech billionaires club. They are plucked from quiet obscurity and plunged headfirst into the chaos of organized crime when they cross paths with the Irish mob. Leading the family’s operations in Holland are Sloane and her brother Farrell, who enlist their services to hack into the security system of Rotterdam harbor—Europe’s largest shipping port—to secure the undetected delivery of drug shipments.
Allen and Gleeson co-star alongside Martijn Lakemeier (Marie Antoinette) as Marco, Charlie Murphy (Happy Valley) as Sloane, and Colm Meaney (Star Trek) as Sloane and Farrell's father, the head of the crime family. The series also features Pauline McLynn (Bodkin), Damien Molony (Ripper Street), Charlotte Timmers (Professor T), and Daniel Lapaine (A Spy Among Friends).
Williams penned all episodes and shared helming duties with directors Arne Toonen (Van der Valk) and Inti Calfat & Dirk Verheye (L'Opera). Williams also executive produced with Adam Barth, James Copp, Herbert L. Kloiber, and Femke Wolting.
Safe Harbor Season 1 premieres in the Netherlands on Videoland starting Friday, January 10, 2025. The series is currently looking for U.K. and U.S. distributors.