Catching up on TV and film in the Hamilton area
Ghostwriter" returned to town.
The Apple TV fantasy kids show was shooting at Dundurn Castle from March 8-11.
The show is about a ghost who haunts a neighbourhood bookstore and starts releasing fictional characters into the real world. Four kids work on trying to figure out the ghost's unfinished business.
It stars Isaac Arellanes, Amadi Chapata and Hannah Levison.
The show, made by Sinking Ship Entertainment and Sesame Workshop, is filming its second season in the Greater Toronto/Hamilton Area. The show is based on the show of the same name that ran from 1992-1995 on PBS and the BBC.
The new series has been well received and won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's or Family Viewing Program. Fans are eagerly waiting for word from Apple TV on whether there will be a third season.
When it filmed in Hamilton in 2019 for its first season, it shot at such places as Gage Park, James Street South, the former Cathedral High School, Breezeway Trail near Confederation Park and Lawson Lumber in Stoney Creek.
The kids in the show encountered such characters as Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes and those from The Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland.
It is filming until June 15 and may return to Hamilton.
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Look for a police cruiser or an ambulance from the 1990s if you want to know if Clarice" is filming in Hamilton again.
The CBS show was in Dundas in January to film a street scene. It employed the cruiser and an ambulance from the 1990s.
Word is the show is looking at filming in Hamilton again. It filmed scenes at the Cannon Knitting Mills on Mary Street last year.
Clarice" tells the further adventures of FBI agent Clarice Starling after her experiences with serial killer Buffalo Bill and Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). It is set a year after those events.
The series stars Rebecca Breeds (Pretty Little Liars) as Starling. It also features Lucca De Oliveira (The Punisher) and Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle).
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In the Dark" continues to shoot in Hamilton. The irreverent TV crime drama had a base camp set up at Bayfront Park in February.
The show stars Perry Mattfeld as a blind woman trying to solve the murder of a friend. It filmed scenes at Jetport at the Hamilton airport at the end of January.
The CW Network series is shown on the CTV Drama Channel.
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A use - albeit temporarily - may have been found for the vacant lot in Dundas that once housed the Canadian Tire store.
The store at Dundas Street and Cootes Drive was torn down last year after the business relocated to University Plaza. No word has been formally announced on what might be built on the land.
The Handmaid's Tale" was in Dundas the week of March 8-12 and located its base camp on the lot. There were at least a dozen trailers, a coffee truck and a few vans to shuttle crew and performers to the filming site at the trail centre in Dundas Valley Conservation Area.
Dundas is the backdrop for many movie and TV show productions, so they may follow The Handmaid's Tale" into locating base camps on the lot.
The Handmaid's Tale" announced on twitter March 14 it had completed filming for its fourth season. It moved to Waterloo after Dundas. The new season centres on resistance to the totalitarian Republic of Gilead by handmaid June Offred (Elisabeth Moss) and her supporters.
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Schitt's Creek won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy. What's the Hamilton connection? Well, of course, co-creator Eugene Levy, is a proud Hamiltonian. He went to such schools as Tweedsmuir, Westdale and McMaster and grew up with the late and longtime mayor Bob Morrow. Levy spoke at Morrow's funeral in 2018.
Daniel Nolan is a freelance writer who writes about film for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com