When I began my annual reflection on our film and TV production industry’s highlights this week, it occurred to me it might be time to rename Victoria.
Hallmark-by-the-Sea, anyone? When you consider how many Hallmark movies have been filmed here, it seems a reasonable alternative to that hoary Hollywood North label we’ve been stuck with.
This year’s local Hallmark highlights — The Gourmet Detective 3, The Convenient Groom, A Rose for Christmas, premièring Sunday on Hallmark Channel, the Jewel vehicle Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery and Walking the Dog — contributed significantly to the production economy during a year notable for an autumn production rebound following a very slow summer.
The fall comeback was as welcome here as last year’s Hallmark Hail Mary was for Nanaimo, Parksville and Qualicum Beach — a three-month shoot for the network’s miniseries Chesapeake Shores.
Considering the relative scarcity of shoots in the capital region until Disney’s Descendants 2 rolled into Hatley Castle in late August, it seemed inevitable 2016 would fall short of 2015’s $18 million in direct spending from 24 projects.
Even without Friend of Bill, the postponed dark comedy starring Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) that was slated to shoot here in November, the local numbers were more respectable than anticipated.
Victoria film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert estimates the final take will be somewhere between $12 and $15 million.
A big chunk came when the city went to the dogs, and Walking the Dog and Air Bud Entertainment’s Pup Star 2 began rolling this fall.
An open casting call for background performers and local pooches for Pup Star 2, the sequel to last year’s hit canine comedy, drew hundreds of hopefuls to an Esquimalt warehouse.
Victoria native Corey Large came home with a nautical thriller. The Ninth Passenger set sail with Alexia Fast and Large’s pal Jesse Metcalfe, who happened to be shooting Chesapeake Shores nearby.
We also faced the cameras for a Volvo commercial; the homegrown miniseries 1491: The Untold Story of the Americas Before Columbus; Taken, a series about missing and murdered aboriginal women; and sequences for Fifty Shades Darker. Dylan Neal, who plays Anastasia Steele’s stepfather in the Fifty Shades of Grey sequel, took time out from shooting Gourmet Detective 3 to film his scenes in Vancouver. Smaller projects included capturing footage for a Bollywood film, and the TV series Kids Diners.
Some locals lamented the loss of Hollywood figures who made a significant impact shooting here.
Anton Yelchin, who filmed Griffin Dunne’s 2004 dark comedy Fierce People here, died in June when he was pinned to a pillar by his Jeep Cherokee after it rolled backwards down Yelchin’s driveway.
Michael Cimino’s death, a month after Yelchin’s, brought back memories of the infamous Hollywood director’s wild-and-crazy Year of the Dragon shoot here in the mid-1980s.
Another intriguing development in 2016 was the revival of many attempts over the years to build a film studio here.
Separate proposals by Partnered Films and producer Margaret Judge to build in vacant warehouse space in Central Saanich and Esquimalt respectively were floated.
2016 was also a big year for moviegoers, when the shuttered Capitol 6 reopened Nov. 4, bringing back to 14 the number of downtown screens.
A day after Cineplex announced that all seating at its downtown Cineplex Odeon seven-plex would be replaced by luxury recliners, reducing capacity from 1,800 to about 1,000, Capitol 6 confirmed it would have 564 luxury recliners, down from 1,680 seats. Capitol 6’s new owner, Andrew Golin, also installed new screens and a Freestyle self-serve machine. Imax Victoria, meanwhile, welcomed its seven millionth visitor after launching its new 3-D laser projection system.
It was also a busy year for some Victoria film and television industry notables.
Calum Worthy (Austin & Ally) spent the summer shooting Cassandra French’s Finishing School, a new millennial-friendly comedy series about the perils of modern dating.
He also appeared in the second season of NBC’s Aquarius, and filmed movies including Bodied, an upcoming rap movie, and the sci-fi thriller Burlesque.
Beau Mirchoff’s achievements included collaborating on Trumpocalypse, a satirical online short envisioning the nightmarish consequences of a Donald Trump presidency, and a Flatliners remake.
It was a rewarding year for two Hollywood screenwriters who once called Victoria home. Pagliacci’s restaurant co-founder Alan Di Fiore saw a screenplay he co-wrote eight years ago become Money Monster; Jodie Foster’s Wall Street thriller starring George Clooney; and The Legend of Barney Thomson was released. The grisly black comedy was directed by Scottish actor Robert Carlyle from Victoria native Richard Cowan’s screenplay.
This was also the year B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong made his small-screen debut with a cameo appearance as a financial pundit in Alan Harmon’s thriller Stranger in the House; that Odeon manager Pierre Gauther, Canada’s longest-running movie theatre manager, got a standing ovation while being honoured by Cineplex Entertainment at an industry event in Toronto; and that former CHEK-TV broadcaster Michaela Pereira returned to Los Angeles to host her own HLN morning show, Michaela, after spending three years co-anchoring CNN’s New Day morning show in New York.