Action-adventure show ‘Jack Reacher’ returns to Hamilton for third season
A Hamilton film studio has landed a major TV production for this month.
Bayfront Studios on Queen Street North will play host to filming for the third season of Amazon Prime's action adventure and ratings busting Reacher."
The program, which filmed scenes in the city for its previous seasons, has been ranked as one of Amazon's top 5 most-watched series ever, both in the United States and globally.
Bayfront will have the production on site for more than two weeks. There will be two days of filming inside and outside the studio. The exterior scene will involve a shot of a truck arriving and leaving the studio lot.
The show is based on the books by Lee Child and features Alan Ritchson as the tough U.S. intelligence officer Jack Reacher who has a nose for trouble. Ritchson was recently in Fast X," the 10th movie in Universal Studios' series of Fast and Furious" car racing flicks.
Hollywood has already tapped Child's books and made two films a decade ago starring Tom Cruise.
Filming of the second season just wrapped in February, but no date has yet been announced for its debut on the streaming service. The show filmed on James Street North, The Cotton Factory and in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area for its second season.
Amazon Prime was so thrilled with the reaction to the series it announced at the end of 2022 it was moving ahead with a third season. The production also involves Skydance Television and Paramount TV Studios.
The third season will involve eight episodes and the show will also film in Toronto and Halifax.
Child has written 26 books and word is the new season will be based on One Shot," which came out in 2005. It was also used for one of Tom Cruise's movies.
Earlier this year, Bayfront was used to film the fourth season of Canada's Drag Race." The show, which has filmed previously at the studio, is one of Crave's most popular shows. The competition program crown's Canada's Next Drag Superstar' with a $100,000 prize.
It won't be hard to pick out the former Delta Secondary School when the TV program based on Stephen King's IT" hits HBO Max (now just Max).
The show tentatively called Welcome to Derry" - the Maine town haunted by Pennywise the clown entity - is using the Main Street East landmark as Derry High School.
Cast and crew were back shooting at the school last week after first filming there in May. The 10-episode show is set in the 1960s and is a prequel to the box office hits IT" (2017) and IT: Chapter Two" (2019).
They shot one scene in the parking lot off Graham Avenue, on the westside of the school. The lot was packed with cars from the 1950s and 1960s, including a 1959 Pontiac and a 1961 Plymouth Fury. Graham Avenue was closed for filming and some old vehicles were parked on the street.
The show filmed in Port Hope before it returned to Hamilton.
Look for Detective William Murdoch to be back in Hamilton this year.
Murdoch Mysteries" - the popular detective show starring Yannick Bisson - has been renewed for its 17th season by the CBC.
The Shaftesbury production has filmed regularly in Hamilton since it premiered in 2008. One of the locales it films at a lot is the Scottish Rite. The show is set in Toronto in the early part of the 20th Century.
During filming for its 16th season, it shot at The Cotton Factory, The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, Vinemount Quarries, Bishop's Park and homes in Dundas and the North End. Plus, a few times at the Scottish Rite.
At the end of the season, Murdoch and his wife, Dr. Julia Ogden (Helene Joy) were drugged and kidnapped. They awoke locked in a crate that appeared to be aboard a ship, bound for parts unknown.
Daniel Nolan is a freelance writer who writes about film for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com