Hollywood North is a term that gets applied to the film industry in Canada, usually either for Toronto or Vancouver.
But a video compilation called Filmed in Victoria posted to YouTube this week proves the capital region has had its share of moments in the spotlight, too.
“My interest was originally based in seeing how films have utilized the city previously,” Victoria filmmaker William Wilkinson, who made the clip and posted it to his personal YouTube account Monday, said in an email to the Times Colonist.
“But as I got further into it I got caught up in the history of the city, and how much has (or hasn’t) changed over the years.”
Wilkinson, who has years of experience in the film and commercial video industry with Ft. Langley, the award-winning production company he co-founded with Oliver Brooks, cut the 11-minute clip using footage from his personal collection of films with Victoria as a central shooting location. They range from Deadpool 2 with Ryan Reynolds — which included scenes filmed at Hatley Castle in Colwood — to Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson, who is seen braving the bitter cold on the outside deck of a B.C. Ferries vessel.
To source the scenes, he used a combination of IMDB, Wikipedia and the Old Victoria, BC page on Facebook.
The most recent footage is from a 2019 episode of The Twilight Zone, but there are clips from as far back as 1935 (Secrets of Chinatown) and 1942 (Commandos Strike at Dawn). Also making Victoria-shot appearances are Johnny Depp (The Professor), Kristen Stewart (In The Land of Women), James Coburn (Harry in Your Pocket), Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn (Bird on a Wire), John Cusack (Hot Pursuit) and Kiefer Sutherland (Dead Heat).
Wilkinson said he gets a kick out of seeing vintage footage of a recognizable actor on the streets of his hometown. He didn’t include every movie filmed on Vancouver Island — notable omissions are Little Women, starring Winona Ryder, and Insomnia, starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams — which sets the stage for an inevitable sequel.
“I’ve been slowly collecting films over the years and finally had the time to edit something together. There’s still more footage I wanna show as it can be hard to track down, so I may do a followup.”
