Filming for U.S. zombie TV series underway in Saint John
CBC
A TV series for major American network NBCUniversal is being filmed in Saint John, in partnership with an Ontario-based production company.
Saint John production company Hemmings Films and Blue Ice Pictures are in the second week of production for Revival, a zombie drama series slated to air on the American Syfy cable TV channel.
Producer Evan Ottoni told Information Morning Saint John the series is based on a graphic novel series from Image Comics, written by Tim Seely and Mike Norton.
"It's a story about a rural town in Wisconsin where the dead suddenly start rising," Ottoni said.
"It really departs from your prototypical zombie story in many interesting and fun ways…. It's really the backdrop for a murder mystery that happens in the town."
Greg Hemmings, executive producer of the series and founder of Hemmings Films, said he's been trying to bring a show of this scale to the city for some time.
He and his partner Steve Foster met a team member from Blue Ice Pictures three years ago when they were visiting family in Saint John.
"We understood what scale of production this company has been involved with, including a lot of productions they bring to St. John's, Newfoundland, and really building that film industry," said Hemmings.
He said since that initial meeting, he and Foster have been working with the provincial government to garner enough funding to make a project with Blue Ice work.
"After a fair bit of back and forth with Blue Ice, we found the right project," said Hemmings.
He said there are many great filming locations in New Brunswick that can portray different places around the world, especially in the United States.
"Obviously we've got a dream to showcase New Brunswick as New Brunswick in some of these projects, but most American network television shows want to showcase America for America and that's fine," he said.
"We have the rural backdrop, we've got the urban centre for locations… this place actually works for this fictional happening in Wausau, Wisconsin."
Hemmings said casting agents for the show were in Toronto, Moncton and Saint John.
