TV series being developed about Lahaina in the 1800s

ATV series set in 19th-century Lahaina, a time when it was the center of the whaling industry and the capital of the kingdom of Hawaii, might not have official production approval, but it’s already attracting top-flight talent.

“Thy Kingdom Come,” co-written by filmmaker and Maui resident Stefan Schaefer and Washington state screenwriter Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, is being developed by the Weinstein Co., which has not announced a broadcast partner.

It does, however, have a director for the pilot, Alik Sakharov, who has helmed episodes of “Game of Thrones” and “Black Sails,” and directed cinematography on “The Sopranos,” Schaefer said. Also on board as show runners are Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, who shared Emmy Awards for “Northern Exposure” and “The Sopranos.” They’re currently writers on an NBC series, “Chicago Med.”

Schaefer said he is especially pleased with Sakharov, whose involvement gives “Thy Kingdom Come” a legitimacy that will help Weinstein market the series.

“He seemed to really get the show,” Schaefer said. “He had really read the script and had ideas about casting and the visual language.”

Maui County Film Commissioner Tracy Bennett met with Weinstein executives recently and said she feels the show will come to Maui. The studio plans to visit in May to see what the island has to offer, he said.

The 21,000-square-foot Maui Film Studios, now under new management and renamed Pan Pacific Studios, is ready for use, and island hotels have prepared group rates for cast and crew, Bennett said.

What Maui lacks is a large enough pool of production personnel. Only 35 International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union members are registered there, or about one-third of the grips, electricians, hair, makeup and wardrobe workers, camera workers, and transportation people “Thy Kingdom Come” would need, Bennett said.

Finding locations to re-create 1820s Hawaii could be a challenge with a potential solution beyond Maui County, he said.

“With this series I can see each island getting a piece of the action,” Bennett said. “For production and visual value, each island probably has several locations that can be used.”

Schaefer and Sibbett met in 2013 via Facebook when the latter asked the filmmaker to read a script for a film about Koolau, a Kauai cowboy who contracted leprosy and hid with his family in Kalalau Valley rather than be exiled to Kalaupapa. Months later Schaefer asked Sibbett to help flesh out the story of “Thy Kingdom Come.”

They were so passionate about the history of Hawaii that it took only 10 days to finish the pilot, with versions of the script being emailed back and forth between Schaefer’s Maui home and Sibbett’s home in Olympia, Wash. The two men didn’t meet each other in person until they pitched their story to Weinstein executives last summer, Sibbett said.

“We literally met in the waiting room,” Sibbett said.

The 1820s of “Thy Kingdom Come” offers a wide array of Hawaii history from which to draw stories, Sibbett said, noting that King Kamehameha the Great had only recently established the kingdom of Hawaii, and the whaling industry was big business for Lahaina, the capital of the kingdom.

“Hawaii is about to reach a point where you can’t look back and can only look forward,” Sibbett said. “It’s where old Hawaii meets new Hawaii.”

Sibbett, who is Hawaiian and has family in Nanakuli, said a project like this has singular responsibilities.

“I’m not such a history buff that everything has to be told perfectly,” Sibbett said. “As an artist I will afford myself liberties to tell the best stories I can within the confines of history. But it is very important to me that the spirit of what it feels like to be Hawaiian is always present.”

AND that’s a wrap …

Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.