How the ‘Kaos' team reimagined the worlds of Greek mythology in Spain

When the team behind Netflix’s Kaos, a contemporary reimagining of Greek mythology, began shooting at a Versailles-adjacent mansion just outside of Spain’s capital, they had to battle another kind of “modern-day God” – the Real Madrid footballers living nearby.

“They were not massive fans of us,” admits the show’s UK-based series producer Katie Carpenter. “I think the restrictions increased as the weeks went on,” she adds, referencing the limitations on crew cars and standby vehicles allowed in the area.   

The eight-episode dark comedy from former Screen Star of Tomorrow Charlie Covell stars Jeff Goldblum as a modernised Zeus, paranoid his reign is under threat. Down on Earth, and even further down in the Underworld, three humans discover their connected purpose.

“We were creating three worlds that don’t even exist,” says UK executive producer Chris Fry.  “Trying to come up with an aesthetic for all three worlds that felt distinct but somehow connected was the biggest challenge.” 

The six-month shoot predominantly took place on location in Spain across the second half of 2022. Locations included Madrid, Malaga and Valencia with some additional shooting in Italy. “You could do a version of this show with some visual effects and have it more heightened,” Fry, whose credits include Chernobyl, explains. “But it was important to [Covell] for it to feel grounded in something real.”

South Africa, Croatia and even Ukraine (prior to the Russian invasion) were among other locations considered, as was the show’s origin country of Greece. Ultimately, the infrastructure wasn’t in place for something of this scale.

“We needed somewhere that offered us a really wide variety of locations. Spain has deserts and palaces and busy streets and beaches,” explains Fry. He notes the country’s tax credit of up to 30%, rising to 50% in the Canary Islands and its sunny weather conditions were also both big attractions. “It offered us the most by far.”

“Boring” Mount Olympus

One of the most significant on-screen locations is Mount Olympus, the gargantuan mansion of Goldblum’s Zeus and his wife/sister Hera, played by Janet McTeer. “It had to be almost achingly beautiful in the sense that it was actually a bit boring,” says Carpenter, who points to Scarface and the photography of Slim Aarons as key reference points. 

Eventually, the team found a property on the outskirts of Madrid, whose neighbours included the aforementioned footballers, and whose owner had recently built from the ground up “to make it feel quite old”. Having previously only been used for commercials, the team were given “a complete run” of the property with most departments setting up shop in various rooms around the house.

Less plain sailing was the Mount Olympus gardens filmed at Villa d’Este in Tivoli, just outside of Rome. “That was open to the public, so we really had to carefully shoot around [people],” explains Fry. “We’d do the wide shots as early as possible and then get narrower and narrower as the day went on.”   

Also filmed in Italy were some of the Mount Olympus interiors, at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Naples, to maximise the “otherworldly” feel.

A mix of main unit and second unit shooting took place in the country, using the Italian service company Mestiere. The production also made use of the country’s tax credit at the time – a relief of 40% rate for production spend in Italy of at least €250,000.

The Underworld campus

For the Underworld, a bureaucratic “limbo” where the souls of the dead are processed, shooting in black and white had not been the original intention.

Filming took place over the summer at a university campus in Valencia able to service the look of a whole city as well as the brutalist aesthetic envisioned. “The problem was there was blue sky and palm trees everywhere,” explains Carpenter. “But the moment you put it in black and white, it had this slightly forgotten feel to it."

It was also the most elaborate of all the worlds, requiring the most locations including various meeting rooms, office buildings and even an entrance to a river. “Editorially, there was a lot of rules and it had a lot of infrastructure that we needed to understand in terms of how it actually functions,” explains Fry, adding the team even created a map where everything was in conjunction to each other.

“The campus was fantastic in terms of offering us so many places we needed all in one,” he adds.

One essential location it did not offer however was the river on which the souls crossover in order to “renew”. Finding it, Carpenter says, took quite a few attempts to get right. 

One river crossed over too much with the busy tourist season, one was at risk of being drained due to drought concerns and another turned out to be inaccessible for filming. Finally, a river came up near the university. “We were then told the water could be highly toxic and we might not be able to film in it,” reveals Carpenter.

Thankfully, it got the all-clear after several tests. 

Down to Earth

 

For the Kaos version of Earth, “contemporary Krete” as it’s known, it was Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation of Romeo & Juliet which provided the essential inspiration. “In the sense of something that has this frenetic energy to it and a slight ‘90s nostalgic about it,” Carpenter explains.

Malaga took centre stage this time round with its palm trees and waterfront fitting the Luhrmann bill as well. A few exceptions included Minos’ Palace which shot at the Plaza Espana in Seville and Orpheus’ apartment which used a villa in Marbella.

“It also had to have this slight edge to it, it had to feel a bit dangerous but not somewhere you wouldn’t want to be,” adds Fry, referring to ‘Troy Town’ where all the Trojan rebels reside. “An exciting dangerous.”

The producers have a lot of praise for the Spanish crews who made up most of the production team, working with UK HODs like production designer Dick Lunn and cinematographer Kit Fraser. “They offered a different perspective and way of working,” says Fry. “As producers and creatives, we were kept on our toes in terms of being open to different methods.”

It was a more complex shoot than either of them had initially envisioned. “The original plan had been to shoot in Seville and Malaga only with maybe one other place,” Fry reveals. “But we needed to spread further afield to find the best possible locations.” Even if it included annoying a few high-profile footballers in the process.