Film series about patient abuse to be shot in Williamson

WILLIAMSON, WV (WOWK) – For nearly two decades, filmmakers and co-writers based out of North Carolina have been scouting the “perfect” city to represent a fictional town in Lundin County, West Virginia. Eventually, they landed on Williamson.

Filmmakers Davis Osborne and Kent Allen were searching for a hospital to convert into the set of their upcoming three-part series “P-27.”

“Whenever we were writing the script, it was like we had a vision of what we wanted our town to look like,” Allen said. “We came across Williamson. We were like ‘oh my gosh, this is perfect.’”

The “old hospital on college hill” in Williamson overlooks all of downtown, and it’s been abandoned for years.

The series “P-27” explores patient abuse in a psychiatric hospital based in the early 2000s, touching on experiences of homeless veterans, domestic abuse survivors, child abuse survivors and more.

Osborne said, “Not graphicly, but it will be presented in a way that the audience can feel some compassion towards it. It was just here recently that Kent and I were here talking, and we were thought ‘we need more hope in this. We need to give people hope, our patients hope, the audience hope for times like this.’ So, we’ve incorporated some new dialogue within just the last few days about having hope. Hopefully, that’s another thing they’ll take away from this series.”

Through physical renovations and digital effects, Osborne and Allen said they plan to convert the now abandoned building into what will appear as an up-and-running psychiatric hospital. They said rather than one lead character, there will be an entire ensemble cast.

“We have some good nurses, and we have some not so good nurses. We have some good orderly and some not so good orderlies. Of course, we have our matriarchs of the film,” Osborne said.

He continued, “David Morgan is kind of over the institution, and nurse Parks is right below him…. We get to see that relationship and that environment….It is an institution. There are locked doors. There are security protocols and things you have to go through to be in there. So, we’ll be shedding light on a light of that.”

At the moment, filmmakers are still searching to fill 25 roles as extras on set. They plan to begin filming in November. In terms of selecting cast, Osborne said they were “very specific” about the actors chosen to fill these roles. Osborne himself will appear in the film, as the character “Anthony.”

This was initially going to be a feature film, though Osborne and Allen said they plan to make it into a series to convey not only the experiences of abuse but also the highlights of hope that they want the audience to connect with.

Osborne said, “Sometimes so many people, and they’re put in positions where they feel like they don’t have a voice, whether it’s that person who’s been abused or that person who’s in a domestic situation that feels like they’re trapped there, there’s no way out. A lot of our vets, I think, don’t have a voice. So, I think what we hope to kind of bring awareness to is finding that voice or inspiring someone else to be the voice for someone else.”

Allen and Osborne said being actors and filmmakers takes years of sacrifice, hard work and relying on a “hurry up and wait” schedule. However to them, this is their passion.

He continued, “This is not a business for the weak. It’s a lot of hurry up and wait. It’s a lot of getting your hopes up, things falling out of place, whether it be financing or the situation or just the script in general. I’m herd-headed, I know Kent is too. We’re not ones to give up. We’ve had big obstacle to get to where we are today, standing in Williamson, but by God’s grace, and a little bit of faith, and a whole lot of prayer, we find ourselves here.”

Though this project has taken nearly two decades of planning and scheduling to create, both Allen and Osborne said they’re highly anticipating filming and editing this series, which they designed to evoke compassion from audiences across what they hope will be multiple streaming platforms.

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