Medical drama starring Noah Wyle to film at Allegheny General Hospital
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A new medical drama starring Noah Wyle of "ER" is filming at Allegheny General Hospital this week.
Most of "The Pitt" will be filmed at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California, on a set designed to replicate the century-old hospital, but the show will make a stop in Pittsburgh to get some special shots.
Crews plan on filming on the hospital's LifeFlight helipad, in various entryways and in the original main lobby along North Avenue, Allegheny Health Network said in a press release Tuesday. Officials say the filming, which is expected to span a few days starting this week, won't impact patient care or hospital operations.
The logline from Warner Bros. describes "The Pitt" as "a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today's America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh."
The show will be produced R. Scott Gemmill, John Wells and Michael Hissrich, all of whom have worked on "ER" with Wyle. Wells and Hissrich are both Carnegie Mellon University graduates.
"We are thrilled to partner with Allegheny General Hospital on The Pitt. Pittsburgh is a city full of everyday folks doing extraordinary things, especially those serving on the frontlines in a post-pandemic world. It's a working-class town, that is also a center of medical excellence and technology – and AGH has been at the forefront of that innovation. We couldn't think of a better place to shoot The Pitt," Hissrich, a Pittsburgh native, said in a press release from AHN.
"The Pitt" at center of lawsuit
"The Pitt" is set to air on Max next year, but it hasn't come without controversy. The estate of Michael Crichton, who wrote the screenplay for what became the pilot episode of "ER," has sued Warner Bros., calling "The Pitt" a rebranded version of an unauthorized reboot, the Associated Press has reported.
Crichton secured a "frozen rights" provision in his contract for "ER," prohibiting Warner Bros. from making anything that derived from "ER" without his or his estate's consent, according to the AP.
"The Pitt is ER. It's not like ER, it's not kind of ER, it's not sort of ER. It is ER complete with the same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio, and network as the planned ER reboot," lawyers representing Crichton's estate wrote in the lawsuit.
Crichton's estate is asking a judge to issue an injunction that would force the studio to stop production, the AP reported.
