Romantic sci-fi film ‘Fingernails’ is rolling cameras in Hamilton
A sci-fi film that has a slew of celebrated actors, and has double Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett as one of its producers, has been filming in Hamilton.
Fingernails" is described as a romance science fiction flick and is about a woman named Anna (Jessie Buckley) who goes to work for a mysterious institute that determines if the romance and love in a couple is genuine. Her intention is to see if her relationship with her longtime partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) is the real thing.
Buckley was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in The Lost Daughter" (2021) and was most recently seen in Canadian director Sarah Polley's film Women Talking." White is best known for his role in the long running TV show Shameless" (2011-2021) that featured William H. Macy.
This past week, Fingernails" was filming downtown at the Ajio Sushi Korean & Japanese Restaurant and the neighbouring Sana Grill. Both are at King Street East and Mary Street.
A few weeks ago, it filmed scenes at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Glanbrook and at Valens Lake Conservation Area in Flamborough. The movie has also been shooting in Toronto.
Anne Murphy, who won an Emmy for her role as Alexis Rose in the CBC sitcom Schitt's Creek" (2015-2020) is in the film, along with Riz Ahmed and Luke Wilson.
Ahmed was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for playing a drummer going deaf in Sound of Metal" (2020) and won an Emmy in 2017 for his role in the HBO miniseries The Night Of." Wilson has been in comedies such as Legally Blonde" (2001) and dramas such as Henry Poole is Here" (2008).
Fingernails" is for Apple TV Plus and is being directed by Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou, who also helped write the script.
Blanchett's company Dirty Films is involved with the production. She won acting Oscars for her roles in the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator" (2004) and Woody Allen's comedy Blue Jasmine" (2013).
The TV pilot for Disney's Witch Mountain" was shooting at the FirstOntario Concert Hall (Hamilton Place) last week. The show, which spent time filming at the former Delta Secondary School last month, is based on the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain." It is about two teens who find out they have special powers and are from another planet.
It shot scenes earlier this week at the Breezy Corners Family Restaurant at Highway 6 and Carlisle Road in Flamborough. The production is planning to spend a few more days at Delta high school before wrapping up. It also filmed in Cambridge last month.
A film called Be Mine" shot a party scene last week at a home at St. Clair Boulevard and Delaware Avenue. There was a crowd in the backyard and in front of the home was a sign proclaiming Kiss Me." There was also a police car for a fake police force. The film also shot at Gage Park and at the Scottish Rite.
The Royal Connaught will make an appearance in Richard Gere's new movie The Longing."
The movie has wrapped up after filming extensively here and in Cambridge, Kitchener and Niagara. Gere plays a man who investigates the life of his late Canadian son he did not know he had.
Final shots in Hamilton were at such places as the former King George Public School on Gage Avenue North, an apartment building at King Street East and Garfield Avenue North, a red brick home on MacNab Street North and a home on Amelia Street, just off Beckett Drive. The house was built in 1958 and designed by celebrated Toronto architect Jerome Markson.
Daniel Nolan is a freelance writer who writes about film for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com