Get ready to see Ladysmith on TV again.
The cast and crew of Resident Alien were back in town last week filming the series’ third season at various locations, including along 1st Avenue where Barnacle Barney’s became ’59ers Bar and street banners were swapped out to say Patience, Colorado.
That’s where the comedy-drama SYFY TV series is set, as production retransformed Vancouver Island’s Ladysmith into a fictional U.S. mountain town.
“An alien crash lands on Earth and must pass himself off as small-town human doctor Harry Vanderspeigle,” reads the series’ synopsis.
“Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life… but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world.”
Resident Alien stars Alan Tudyk as titular Vanderspeigle, Sara Tomko as Asta Twelvetrees, Corey Reynolds as Sheriff Mike Thompson and Alice Wetterlund as D’Arcy Bloom.
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Film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert with the Vancouver Island South Film and Media Commission says she’s happy the show’s producers have taken a liking to Ladysmith, especially because this year is shaping up to be less busy for the local industry.
“It hasn’t been outrageously slow, but probably a little slower than the last couple of years, for sure, and we’re not quite sure what’s causing that,” Gilbert told CHEK News.
While the commission predicts about $50 million in “direct spend” this year, a number Gilbert calls “fairly significant,” it’s still not as much as 2021’s record-breaking $60 million.
According to the film commissioner, direct spending is the money film and TV producers dole out locally, including at hotels, gas stations and restaurants.
“We expect that the summer and moving into fall, I don’t think it’s going to be outrageously busy, but it should be fairly steady,” she added. “It was a slow start to the year, and we don’t know if the threat of a writers’ strike is causing that.”
Gilbert says another Hallmark movie is also about to film on the South Island, as well as a TV series that’s moving over from Vancouver and another SYFY series, Reginald The Vampire, which is back in Victoria for its second season.
In a blog post, SYFY Wire says the upcoming season of Resident Alien will likely include eight episodes and debut later this year. In anticipation, local Ladysmith passersby and groups took to social media in recent days, posting photos of the cast and crew on set:
Ethan Morneau
