First Look: ‘Barkskins’ With Marcia Gay Harden & David Thewlis Starts Production (VIDEO)

Meredith Jacobs July 23, 2019, 5:00 pm

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Annie Proulx’s novel, Barkskins, is coming to the small screen, and production has begun on the new National Geographic scripted series.

TV Insider has an exclusive first look behind the scenes of the series starring Marcia Gay Harden (Code Black) and David Thewlis (Fargo).

The series follows a disparate group of outcasts navigating the brutal hardships, competing interests, and tangled loyalties at the crossroads of civilization in 1600s New France, where the war to escape their past and remake themselves is cast against the vast and unforgiving wilds of North America.

“This is really a story about people coming to the new world and trying to survive,” showrunner and creator Elwood Reid previews. “They didn’t know anything about the woods. They didn’t know anything about the native people that lived here. We’re going to feel what that is like on camera.”

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It’s a “mysterious” and “dangerous” world, and that’s what art director Isabelle Guay wants her design “to reflect.”

Watch the video below for a look behind the scenes and to find out what makes this series “immersive,” the importance of their filming locations, the part of the storytelling usually found in fantasy, and more.