Killer doll “Chucky” creeping around Devil’s Punch Bowl and other Hamilton film news
A film based on the bestselling thriller The Marsh King's Daughter" is expected to shoot in Hamilton.
The movie is set to go before the cameras over the next three months and word is one location being looked at is Fifty Point Conservation Area in Stoney Creek.
It has been a banner year for film productions at local conservation areas. Cameras have rolled at Fifty Point, Dundas Valley, Christie and Westfield Heritage Village in Flamborough.
At the end of last week, the TV show based on the killer doll Chucky" was filming at the Devil's Punch Bowl in Stoney Creek.
Sarah Gauden, marketing and events manager for the Hamilton Conservation Authority, wouldn't reveal productions at Fifty Point, but said things appear to look good for the authority for 2021.
Filming, as in many areas in Hamilton, has been steadily increasing in the conservation areas," she said in an email. Numbers declined last year, but this year we have had several productions come through and have a few still scouting the areas."
Two productions that filmed at Dundas Valley were the TV show The Handmaid's Tale" and the movie Firestarter."
The Marsh King's Daughter" is based on the 2017 novel by Michigan author Karen Dionne. The New York Times called the book as good as a thriller can be."
It has some big stars - Daisy Ridley, who played Rey in the three recent Star Wars" films, and Ben Mendelsohn, who is also a Star Wars" veteran, having been in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (2016). He has been in Captain Marvel" (2019) and played King George VI in Darkest Hour" (2017).
The story revolves around Helena Petterier (Ridley), whose idyllic family life is turned upside down when she learns the man who fathered her, Jacob Holbrook (Mendelsohn) and held her and her mother hostage in a marsh for 12 years has escaped prison. Helena decides to take matters into her own hands and hunt her father down.
The director is Neil Burger, who made Divergent" (2014), and the screenplay is by Elle and Mark Smith, who co-wrote The Revenant" (2015).
Rob Howe, manager of Fifty Point, believes his park is popular with filmmakers because it can offer water scenes that can be made to look like they are made on the ocean. He also noted it also has the historic building, Ingledale House, which was built between 1815-1820. Sometimes, people who have boats in the marina get pulled into film productions.
Howe recalled in 2019 the quirky superhero show The Boys" was at Fifty Point. They filmed a now infamous scene of a speed boat operated by the show's nominal hero racing into shore. In the show, using special effects, the boat sliced into a huge whale blocking the character's escape.
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Zac Effron's remake of Firestarter" is popping up all over Hamilton.
The film about a girl named Charlie with pyrokinetic powers shot in Ancaster earlier this month. The crew and cast set up a base at the Morgan Firestone Arena.
Then early last week, the film company was in Flamborough. They were at a farm at Valens Road and Safari Road.
Last Thursday, the company was at the former Princess Elizabeth School at Bowman Street and Whitney Avenue in west Hamilton. The school was called Lewiston Elementary for the movie.
Princess Elizabeth School, originally called West Hamilton School when it opened in 1922, closed in 1983. It was bought by the Hamilton Hebrew Academy in 1991.
Firestarter" first came out in 1984 and is based on the 1980 Stephen King novel.
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Elsewhere, the Hurricane Katrina hospital drama Five Days at Memorial" continued to shoot at the Hamilton Convention Centre last week.
The superhero show featuring Robin/Nightwing called Titans" was filming on King Street East. A poster for a wanted Nightwing was hung on a pole out front of the Black Forest Inn at King and Ferguson Avenue North.
Daniel Nolan is a freelancer who writes about film for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com