A castle in Colwood is home to movie cameras again this week as an all-star cast flocks to film “FATE,” a new suspenseful romance scheduled for release in 2025.
Harvey Keitel, Faye Dunaway and Andrew McCarthy are tapped to star alongside Mena Suvari, Brandon Routh and Cheech Marin in the feature film, which is currently in production at the historic Hatley Castle at Royal Roads University.
“FATE” is an “epic love story,” director Jonathan Baker wrote in an Instagram post, along with a picture of the castle sporting a “Vista Hotel” sign.
“It takes a minute to find a special person and (an) entire lifetime to forget them,” he said.
“After a rescue mission gone wrong, a firefighter connects with a supernatural visitor while rehabilitating at a sanitarium and is transported through time to find the only thing saving his soul, is his realization of true love.”
According to Baker, who previously worked with Dunaway on his 2017 directorial debut, “Inconceivable,” the hotel’s name is inspired by Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino and his California-based movie theatre, The Vista.
“The hotel and the period (show) the times and eras that will cross in ‘FATE,’ the motion picture, that begins filming Monday,” he wrote in a May 2 post, a day after arriving in B.C.’s capital via seaplane.
Years in the making
Keitel is known for his roles in “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction,” while Dunaway starred in “Bonnie and Clyde” and Andrew McCarthy was in “Pretty in Pink.”
Baker says the project was several years in the making. In an earlier social media post, he shared the official poster and captioned it with an inspirational message: “Never give up, drive it forward.”
Baker Entertainment Group is the local production company for “FATE,” which, according to Creative BC, is expected to wrap filming on June 1. Highland Film Group will launch international sales at this week’s Cannes Film Festival, Deadline reports.
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This isn’t the first time Hatley Castle has attracted film crews. People watching movies like “Deadpool,” “The Boy,” and “X-Men 2” will notice the more-than-a-century-old Greater Victoria landmark in some scenes.
Numerous other productions are underway in B.C., including in Nanaimo, where crews from HBO’s “The Last of Us” turned the downtown core into a post-apocalyptic America. Recently, a local clothing store owner shared pictures of the set and told CHEK News he was intrigued by the transformation, which has people flocking to see it.
IMDb estimates the budget for “FATE” is $10 million, while “The Last of Us” is expected to generate big bucks for B.C. as it films locally. An Island-based film commission is thrilled by the influx of such projects.
Brandon Lepine, regional production services manager for the Vancouver Island North Film Commission, told CHEK News last month that “2024 is looking excellent,” adding, “We have several productions filming right now on the Island. We have more coming up.”
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READ ALSO: New photos show post-apocalyptic downtown Nanaimo amid ‘The Last of Us’ filming
Ethan Morneau
