New streaming crime series brings $108 million production to western Pennsylvania

A new streaming series based on a popular crime novel series set to shoot in the Pittsburgh area is the latest sign that film production is back and busy after a 2024 that was dormant, if not completely dead, for movie making in western Pennsylvania.

The project is a production by A+E Studios, the production arm of the A&E cable network, with Range Studios, of a stream drama based on a series of “Killer Instinct” crime novels by Lars Kepler for Apple TV+. An announcement about the series describes it as about “an ex-soldier turned homicide detective who, tired of working the tough streets of Philadelphia, moves to a small town in Western Pennsylvania for a quiet life” only to be confronted by a cunning serial killer.

The administration of Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania Film Commissioner Gino Anthony Pesi announced the new project for the region, which has been allocated a $32.4 million film production tax credit, an economic development subsidy that’s expected to result in film production spend of $108 million, based on a 25% credit value for shoots that spend at least 60% of their total budgets within the commonwealth.