Ozark will throw down with a super-sized season to launder all of the Byrde family’s messes and, most importantly, to allow Marty enough time to keep losing his sh*t on multiple occasions before the series concludes. Fortunately for viewers of this enormously popular show, Season 4 will begin filming this fall as planned, and there’s even better news: the show does not actually film at Lake of the Ozarks, where all sorts of pandemic foolishness has been going down, but rather, in Georgia near Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier.
Sticking to the schedule is important for obvious reasons, including cost-effectiveness, which means that shutting down production when a Covid-19 case pops up is something to be avoided if possible. For that reason, star Jason Bateman has chosen to break an important tradition — he usually directs the first two episodes of each season — in order to keep himself in some semblance of a bubble. It’s a wise move, even if it’s “breaking his heart,” as he recently told Indiewire.
“[A]s we were looking through the protocols, the guidelines, all the complications with COVID, [and] the producer side of me made me think it’s just not responsible to have one of the actors direct the first two,” he reasoned. “Given that we’re still going to be getting our perimeter safe. Because if one of the actors gets sick, we all have to go home for weeks.”
Whereas if a crew member falls ill, Bateman points out, he can “[make] sure their salary is protected” while they stay home until the all clear is called. It remains to be seen whether he can pick up a few episodes to helm toward the end of the season, but that’s probably not in the cards. It’s definitely not the ideal way for him to end the Ozark run, but he knows exactly how much it matters to get things done as safely as possible, and he wants everyone to know that “I love directing the show.”
(Via IndieWire)