Kansas City will be the setting for the first season of a new Peacock/NBC Universal series, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.”
Adapted from a 2018 book by Swedish author Margareta Magnusson, the show involves her innovative method for healing from grief after the sudden deaths of her husband and mother. Cleaning up the belongings they left behind allowed her to move on. Her advice includes re-appropriating loved ones' items as gifts, thinking about organizing their digital afterlives and discarding things that would cause their family embarrassment.
Co-producers of the series are former “SNL” star Amy Poehler's company Paper Kite Productions and California based Scout Productions, which filmed Netflix’s "Queer Eye" in Kansas City in 2018.
“Peacock and Poehler’s company were not familiar with Kansas City because neither company has filmed here or aired other programs that have,” said Stephane Shannon, director of the KC Film Office. “Scout Productions vouched for us all the way based on their love for their first experience filming in KC.”
“I fell crazy in love with Kansas City," Scout Media Executive Producer David Collins said in a video published to the KC Film Office’s YouTube channel. "The film commission did everything they could to make sure our crew, team, talent, and cast were happy while we were here.”
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas had been working with Visit KC and Kansas City Film Office to bring this project to the metro since 2021.
Citing the city's unique film production incentive program, Shannon said she expected the project would bring millions of dollars to the local economy and build on the city’s notoriety.
“The economy's going to be impacted greatly in not just Kansas City, Missouri, but our whole region,” she said. “Once it's out there on Peacock/NBC Universal people from around the world and all over the country are going to be seeing Kansas City as the setting for the show. Tourism will only benefit from that.”
Kansas City’s incentive program is the only such local program in the nation. Unlike states such as California and Georgia, Missouri has no statewide incentives program to lure film projects.
“Because we had a local incentive, we became more apples to apples with several other places they were looking at,” said Shannon. “It's really the recruitment tool that I can use to help us draw in some film and T.V. work, but also covers a myriad of other things.”
Filming will begin before the end of the summer and will be partly staffed by local production companies and creators. No specific filming schedule or premiere date has been released to the public.
Lawrence Brooks is an intern for KCUR 89.3.
