Despite the story being set in North Carolina, the movie was shot in and around Houma and New Orleans in Louisiana, as there was a concentration of locations matching the scenery depicted in the novel — from the salt marsh to the beach and the swamps.

"The reason that we went there (Louisiana) instead was that the coast of North Carolina has been developed a lot. It doesn't look the way that the marshes looked in the period in which the film is set," says Gabler.

When the primary photography took place between March and July last year, there were numerous unexpected challenges from adverse weather to some, potentially dangerous, "bystanders".

Recalling that the shoot was not affected by the pandemic due to fortunate timing and its comparatively small cast, Gabler says the massive rainfall brought by some storms caused bigger trouble.

"We had to stop filming one day. The rain was so heavy that the crew was very worried about getting home. They were worried about crossing the bridge in New Orleans to where they lived. It was the most rain I had ever seen. I heard it flooded up to our set," she recalls.

When some of the night scenes were shot, Gabler says the crew spotted some alligators watching them from the water, while the crew were being harassed by swarms of insects in the woods.

"From that perspective, it was definitely not an easy movie for the actors and the crew," says Gabler.

With her team at 3000 Pictures, Gabler, a former president at Fox 2000, has produced some blockbusters that are very familiar to Chinese theatergoers, such as the Meryl Streep vehicle The Devil Wears Prada and director Ang Lee's multiple Oscar-winning Life of Pi.