Kiefer Sutherland back to film new spy series ‘Rabbit Hole’
Kiefer Sutherland was doing his best spy derring-do on the streets of Hamilton.
The actor known for playing counter terrorism agent Jack Bauer in the Fox TV series 24" (2001-2010) was in town last week filming scenes for his new spy series Rabbit Hole" for the streaming service Paramount +.
In this one, he stars as James Weir, described as a master of deception in the world of corporate espionage who is framed for murder by powerful forces that have the ability to influence and control populations.
The Royal Connaught was made up to look like a New York City hotel, called Decatur West NYC, for a scene filmed last Tuesday. Weir comes to the aid of a woman named Hailey Winton (Meta Golding) being escorted against her will into a car out front of the King Street East landmark.
Cars carried New York state licence plates, including two cabs, and U.S. flags waved from above the hotel entrance. Sutherland wore a dark coat and sunglasses.
Where are you taking this woman?" Weir asks the man and woman taking Winton toward the sedan. He is told the woman is under arrest, but Weir is having none of it and enlists the crowd to help free her.
This woman has done nothing and I have it all on camera," he says, waving his cellphone in their direction. Then, he starts a chant of We see you," which is joined in by the bystanders. He gets the crowd's attention further when he tells him, They're going to shoot her." People drop to the ground.
The two cops are restrained by bystanders, and Weir and Winton escape across the parking lot and jump into his car.
The eight-episode program began filming in Toronto in mid-May and is set to premiere later this year. Sutherland is an executive producer.
Rabbit Hole" was in Hamilton for three days. On Wednesday, the show shot at a home on Amelia Street, just off Becket Drive. It was reported to be the home of a character's mother. On Thursday, the show filmed in Gore Park.
The show also features Charles Dance (The Crown"), Enid Graham (Bull") and Jason Butler Harner (Ozark"). Golding has been in The Hunger Games."
Film shoots are now part of the rhythm of Hamilton life, but Rabbit Hole" did attract onlookers. Malik Allen, 26, was fascinated at the amount of film equipment.
I've lived here a while and to see Hamilton dive into the arts is awesome," said the warehouse worker. It's not just the little things, but we have massive productions."
This is not the first time Sutherland has filmed in Hamilton. He was here in 2017 and 2018 to shoot scenes for Designated Survivor" which ran on ABC from 2016-2018 and Netflix in 2019.
The series featured him as Thomas Kirkman, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who becomes president of the United States after an explosion at the Capitol Building kills the president and all other successors.
The show, marked with intrigue and palace plots against Kirkman, filmed at Woodland Cemetery and Sturgess Cycle in 2017 and at Hamilton City Hall in 2018.
Kiefer Sutherland's father, Donald Sutherland, has also filmed in the city. He came here in April 2009 to film the comedy The Love Child of Andy Warhol and Yoko Ono" and in October 2015 to film the family drama Milton's Secret."
It was a week for TV spies in Hamilton. Arnold Schwarzenegger was back in town shooting scenes for his Netflix show UTAP." He plays a spy who finds out his daughter is a spy when they wind up working on the same case.
The show filmed at 33 Sanford Ave. S., an old warehouse, on Thursday and at LG Film Studios on Beach Road, across from ArcelorMittal Dofasco, on Friday. The studio is in the former Lloyd George School, which closed in 2003.
Daniel Nolan is a freelance writer who writes about films for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com