It was hard to resist the temptation to scold Shine America with a “Look what you’ve started!” jab this week.
I was referring, of course, to its production of Gracepoint, Fox network’s 10-episode Broadchurch remake that kept local talent and crews hopping here last year.
The tongue-in-cheek admonition followed the inevitable flood of calls and emails from readers asking about all those white movie trucks and trailers moving around town.
The action began last week when Air Bud Entertainment’s Monkey Up starting shooting in Oak Bay, followed Wednesday by the start of principal photography of Gourmet Detective 2 and The Boy.
Monkey Up, director Robert Vince’s family comedy starring Crystal the Monkey (Night at the Museum), John Ratzenberger (Cheers) and Danny Woodburn (Seinfeld) prompted an online comment from a Times Colonist reader that had industry folks chuckling this week: “Do not let Oak Bay find out about the monkey. They might start a cull.”
The projects already rolling here are just three of 10 feature films and TV movies that Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert estimates will have been filmed here this year by the end of April.
As always, most details about who’s starring in what are kept under wraps until contracts have been signed or we can see the whites of their eyes.
Fans of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel will be happy to learn that Diana Hardcastle, the British actor who stars in that sequel and the original, has joined the cast of The Boy, the psychological thriller headlined by Walking Dead star Lauren Cohan.
Others in the growing cast besides Hardcastle, fresh from shooting the new Katherine Heigl comedy Jenny’s Wedding, include Ben Robson (Vikings), Jim Norton (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), Rupert Evans (Hellboy, Rogue) and James Russell (Blue Bloods), I’ve learned.
Produced by STX Entertainment and Lakeshore Entertainment, which produced Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby, the thriller from director William Brent Bell focuses on Greta, a young American woman with a troubled past who discovers things aren’t quite right at a remote English manor where she’s hired to care for a vacationing couple’s eight-year-old son.
Her fears are confirmed when she realizes the couple’s son is not an actual boy, but a life-sized porcelain doll she’s told she must care for in very specific ways, or else something terrible might happen.
When the isolated young nanny feels compelled to uncover the disturbing mystery behind the title character, weirdness ensues. Cue the eerily discordant strained strings.
The Boy is the fourth in an inaugural slate of films that STX Entertainment has recently partnered on.
“We love this terrifying script and think the movie will be a terrific start to our 2016 lineup,” said STX Motion Picture Group president Oren Aviv, noting the studio’s aim is to support “fresh and daring filmmakers” like Bell. Its first release, slated for July 31, is an untitled thriller from director Joel Edgerton starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, followed on Oct. 23 by Secret in Their Eyes, writer-director Billy Ray’s thriller starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts. The Boy is slated for release on Jan. 22, 2016, followed in March by The Free State of Jones, an action drama starring Matthew McConaughey.
GRACEPOINT UPDATE: British viewers will finally get the chance to gather around the telly next month and decide for themselves whether Gracepoint measures up to Broadchurch, the mystery series starring David Tennant. ITV Encore has acquired exclusive broadcast rights for the U.S. remake of its critically acclaimed crime drama, network publicist Sarah Stevens told us Thursday.
Sasha Breslau, head of acquired series for ITV, also noted that while Gracepoint is “an adaptation with such rich associations, [it] stands on its own as a compelling, distinctive piece of drama.”
When the series premières on ITV Encore in April, it will be interesting to see whether Gracepoint gets a warmer reception than it did in North America last fall.
The capital region’s scenic virtues didn’t escape Hollywood’s attention, incidentally. Although Gracepoint locations manager Mark Voyce and assistant locations manager Dana Herriott didn’t make the final cut, they were considered as nominees for a Location Managers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Locations in a Contemporary Television series.
True Detective won when the awards were handed out during a black-tie ceremony in Beverly Hills last weekend, beating Homeland, Nashville, NCIS: Los Angeles and Ray Donovan.
THE LEO DIARIES: Memories of Bird on a Wire, when photo doubles for Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn spotted downtown were mistaken for the stars themselves, resurfaced here last Friday during alleged sightings of Leonardo DiCaprio and speculation that The Revenant was shooting in Metchosin. DiCaprio, sporting long hair and a scruffy beard to play a vengeful 19th century fur trapper, was in L.A. at the time and, according to insiders, back this week on the southern Alberta set of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s epic western. Crews got a thrill when, fresh from their Birdman Oscar win, Inarrutu’s co-producers let them hold Birdman’s best picture Oscar statuette when they returned to set. The Revenant is being filmed at locations including Drumheller, Kananaskis, Burnaby’s Mammoth Studios and Squamish last December.