Neil Patrick Harris
This week, production on a TV series based on a children’s book series has come to an end as the series has shot its last season.
But a Disney feature film based on a children’s novel is headed this way, along with a sci-fi feature film.
And there’s also a TV pilot that’ll take viewers back into the days of grunge rock.
Here’s a look at what’s going on in Vancouver’s screen scene at the moment and in the near future.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
First up, A Series of Unfortunate Events wrapped up production on both Seasons 2 and 3 on May 8. It started back on April 17, 2017, so they’ve been here for quite a lengthy period of time.
With this home-screen adaptation of the book series by Lemony Snicket having stretched out the material over the course of three seasons, actor Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the dastardly Count Olaf, confirmed that the series has finally completed for good.
Can’t believe that tomorrow is my last day as Count Olaf. For over two years I’ve gotten to play in the most creative, visual, challenging, fantastical sandbox of my career. I’m super proud, and will miss it greatly. @Unfortunate pic.twitter.com/m8WnA8zPRm
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) May 7, 2018
While the end of the show will allow him to return to New York City to be with his husband and twin children, he said on social media that he would “sure miss the nature and majestic beauty of” Canada.
In fact, he bid farewell to Vancouver (which he called “extraordinary”) by singing “O Canada” while on a mountain hike.
Malina Weissman
The cast has also included Patrick Warburton, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes, Presley Smith, K. Todd Freeman, Lucy Punch, Avi Lake, Dylan Kingwell, and more.
Meanwhile, the city is about to get rocked back in time.
Carrie Brownstein
The pilot for a new music-based TV series, Search and Destroy, got underway on May 7 and continues until May 16.
It’s written and directed by Portlandia star and co-creator Carrie Brownstein, who is a founding member of the rock band Sleater-Kinney. This new series will be loosely based on her memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, which follows a young musician through the underground feminist rock movement of the Pacific Northwest grunge scene in the 1990s.
In addition to that arrival, a number of feature films are coming this way.
John Ridley
One of the forthcoming productions is a sci-fi film, Needle in a Timestack, which shoots from June 18 to July 24.
This adaptation of a short story by Robert Silverberg, to be directed by John Ridley (who won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for 12 Years a Slave), revolves around a husband who does whatever it takes to save his marriage when a time-traveling rival destroys it.
Full details, including the cast, haven’t been announced yet, so we’ll have to wait to see which stars will be arriving for this project.
Tom McCarthy
Meanwhile another movie preparing to come to town is the Disney family feature Timmy Failure will also shoot in town from June 18 to July 27.
The fantasy-adventure flick, directed by Tom McCarthy (who directed 2015’s Spotlight, for which he won best original screenplay and which also won the best picture award at the Academy Awards), is a live-action adaptation of a children’s book by Stephan Pastis.
The story revolves around an 11-year-old boy who runs the detective agency Total Failures with his best friend, who happens to be an imaginary 1,200-pound polar bear.
The cast hasn’t been revealed yet so, like the previous film, we’ll have to stay tuned to find out more about it.
That’s all for this week but there are other developments on the horizon to discuss in the near future so be sure to check back in with us for more on what’s happening here in Hollywood North.
