It was the quickest, most low-key shoot here last year, yet it yielded dramatic images of the capital region’s most high-profile location in this year’s big hit Deadpool.
You couldn’t miss it if you saw Marvel’s subversive superhero flick, which stars Ryan Reynolds as the masked, wisecracking, amoral anti-hero — Hatley Castle, rising again as the X-Mansion.
Brian Globus, office and locations co-ordinator for the Vancouver Island South Film and Media Commission, said the Deadpool crew was here last fall, as stealthy as the rogue avenger himself.
Globus took one of the comic book blockbuster’s visual-effects experts to Royal Roads on Oct. 28 to take plate shots that would incorporate the castle into the action. Plate shots involve specialized still photography. It wasn’t the first time film crews have slipped into town to take them.
Other notable examples were when technicians captured images of the B.C. legislature in 2008 for a disaster sequence in Roland Emmerich’s $200-million doomsday thriller 2012. Three years ago, a plate shot of the University of Victoria’s deserted Centennial Stadium was taken so that computer-generated imagery could later make the stadium lights appear to explode as storm debris pelts a crowd in Stonados.
That’s a wrap, Milady: Lady Fiona Carnarvon can finally, we assume, breathe a sigh of relief now that Downton Abbey’s series finale has aired in North America.
The chatelaine of Highclere Castle, the magnificent mansion in Hampshire that depicts Downton Abbey, admitted it could be a challenge being sworn to secrecy while the British period drama was filmed there.
“Everybody had contracts, of course,” said the eighth Countess of Carnarvon, who with her husband, George Herbert, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon, are the stewards of his family’s ancestral home.
“I’d pray to God that we didn’t break [our silence], even inadvertently,” recalled the countess, who attended a Downton Abbey gala broadcast at Oak Bay Beach Hotel last Sunday.
“We were partners and understood how they’d want to tease the audience and get the best figures as part of their marketing plan.”
Whether creator Julian Fellowes and crews return to Highclere remains up in the air.
“There may or may not be a film,” she said.
“And there are other developments that might come through that might amuse people.”
The real Jack Black: Brooke Burns was a cheerful presence on the set of The Gourmet Detective: Death Al Dente while shooting her scenes as San Francisco Det. Maggie Price for the Hallmark movie last month.
The Los Angeles-based actor of Baywatch fame, who played the dorky and gorgeous versions of Katrina opposite Jack Black in Shallow Hal, could also erupt into laughter.
She did it again after being told how Black reacted to crowds who clapped after each take of him waltzing out of a variety store in Tofino munching pretzels while shooting The Big Year in 2010.
“I do other things in the movie, too,” Black deadpanned, before doing a mock bow.
“That is so Jack! I love it!” exclaimed Burns before setting the record straight on Black.
“He is such a joy to work with and as silly and funny in person as the characters he plays.”
Hello again, Anne: If you missed Anne Wheeler when she appeared at Cinecenta last year for a fundraising screening of Bye Bye Blues, don’t worry.
The Canadian filmmaker is making a special appearance tonight at 7:30 as part of a special Movie Monday event in the Eric Martin Pavilion Theatre in the 1900 block of Fort Street. Wheeler will talk about her 1981 Second World War drama, starring Rebecca Jenkins, after it screens.
The timing worked, since Wheeler was in town for a writing workshop at the University of Victoria, and to present Chi, her documentary about her travels to India with her friend, the late Vancouver actor Babz Chula, at CineVic Thursday night. Admission is by donation. Call 250-595-3542 for more information.
Rushes: Congratulations to Victoria filmmaker Ana De Lara, one of five winners of Women in Film and Television Vancouver’s #FromOurDarkSide genre writing competition for The Chosen One. She will receive a mentorship package to help take her project to the next stage, a cash prize, travel to the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival and accreditation to the Frontières International Co-Production Market in Montreal .... Good news for film buffs who still haven’t seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. You can be among the first to experience the film as projected using the new Imax Laser 3-D technology when it opens at Imax Victoria tonight at 8. For other showtimes and admission prices, visit imaxvictoria.com.