Superheroes and Christmas lovers filming in Hamilton
The Boys" were back in town.
The sci-fi superhero show was shooting scenes for its third season at the former King George elementary school.
The Amazon Prime show filmed inside the Gage Avenue North school on March 4-5. Vehicles from Idaho Productions, which makes the series, were in the school parking lot and Idaho signs were on one school door.
The Boys" was one of two superhero series that returned to film in Hamilton this month.
Titans" filmed inside the Breezy Corners Family Restaurant on Highway 6 in Flamborough on March 1. The Netflix/HBO Max show was at the Rockwood Conservation Area, east of Guelph, in February.
Both shows are filming their third seasons and will likely be in the Hamilton area again. The shooting schedule for Titans" goes to June.
If you didn't know, The Boys" is about the struggle between some less than noble superheroes called Seven and Boys, the vigilante group out to combat and expose them.
The satirical show is based on a comic book and stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid and Karen Fukuhara.
The Boys" has previously filmed at Tim Hortons Field, Webster's Falls, The Cotton Factory and various locales in central Hamilton, the industrial sector and the North End.
It is one of the most successful programs on Amazon Prime. Neilsen tracked viewership of it after it premiered in October 2019 and found it had attracted eight million total viewers in its first 10 days.
Titans" is also based on a comic book and involves a team of young superheroes who fight evil and perils. It features Batman's partner Dick Grayson, who is known as Nightwing. There's also such characters and Starfire and The Beast.
Anyone who watched it the first season would have seen an HSR bus in a shot taken on Beach Road. The series has also shot at Tim Hortons Field, Liuna Station, Christ's Church Cathedral, Hamilton airport and at a location on York Boulevard.
It stars Brenton Thwaites, Teagon Croft, Anna Diop and Ryan Potter. The third season will see the Titans' spend more time in Gotham City. Some new superhero characters are to be introduced.
Christmastown
Filming a Christmas movie in Hamilton seems so common these days we might get the nickname Christmastown as opposed to Steeltown.
There have been at least four since the start of the year.
Christmas in Angel Heights" was shooting at the Ancaster Mill on March 9. Christmas decorations were set up outside the front door of the popular restaurant.
The film is shooting in Hamilton until March 18 and is directed by Graeme Campbell. The only thing a person from Toronto-based Champlain Media East, which is making the film, would say is that Christmas in Angel Heights" is for the Hallmark Channel and is not a sequel to the popular Hallmark Channel Christmas in Angel Falls" (2017).
That was about an angel sent to a town to revive the town's forgotten Christmas spirit and finds love in the process. It starred Rachel Boston as Gabby the angel, Paul Greene as her love interest and Beau Bridges as the angel Michael. It was filmed in North Bay.
There is also Christmas at the Movies" filming here. It was at the old Spectator building on Frid Street, now part of McMaster Innovation Park, on March 7-8. The production filmed in Westdale and at the Westdale Theatre on March 9-10. It shot in Kitchener and Cambridge earlier in the month.
In February, Flirting with Santa" was in the city. In January, Loving Christmas" was in Ancaster.
Flirting with Santa" is being made by Champlain Media East also and is directed by Sharon Lewis. It spent two weeks in Hamilton and shot at such places as the Dundurn Lofts on Dundurn Street South and at the Radius restaurant on James Street South.
Production co-ordinator Emily Andrews said the feature film is a Christmas romcom" set in Chicago. It stars an all-Canadian cast.
She likes filming in Hamilton and says a lot of film folks do.
It's very welcoming," Andrews said. It's got great locations and great looks. There's a lot of pluses."
Previous Christmas-themed movies shot in Hamilton include A Christmas Break" (2020), Christmas Chronicles" (2018) and The Secret Life of Mrs. Claus" (2015).
Daniel Nolan is a freelance writer who writes about film for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com