Blackfriars Bridge gets the Hollywood treatment in filming of Amazon Prime series
Matthew Trevithick | CBC News | Posted: April 18, 2024 9:00 AM | Last Updated: April 18
Filming starts Thursday for Motorheads series starring Ryan Phillippe
London's historic Blackfriars Bridge will have an uncredited cameo in an upcoming Amazon Prime series set to film in the city this week.
Crew members for the show, called Motorheads, could be seen on Wednesday afternoon making alterations to the 149-year-old crossing, which will play a part in the fictional Pennsylvania township of Ironwood.
A sign over the road welcomes fictional motorists to Ironwood with the slogan "where the rubber meets the road."
"It's quite exciting," said neighbour Cathy Metelnick, who lives a few houses down from the bridge, which will be closed until Friday evening. Filming is set to take place Thursday between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., according to leaflets handed out to nearby homes.
"It's a little inconvenient. But I mean, the bridge has been closed so many times, it's not that big a deal to have it closed for a few days," Metelnick said.
The Amazon Prime series stars Ryan Phillippe, Nathalie Kelley, Michael Cimino and Melissa Collazo, and is being produced by Jax Media and Amazon MGM Studios. No release date is known, and it's not clear which actors will be present on Thursday.
Metelnick says she was notified about the shoot on Monday by the production company, who plans to use her driveway for extra parking.
"The family joke has been that Ryan is going to park his Porsche in my driveway, so they're gonna be really excited tonight when I tell them that they're using my driveway."
Motorheads centres around "a group of outsiders in a once-thriving Rust Belt town (who) form an unlikely friendship over a mutual love of automobiles," according to its IMDB entry.
The production's listing on the website for the Film and Television Industry Alliance (FITA) describes it as a "coming-of-age ensemble drama."
An official with the production company referred all of CBC's questions to Amazon, who did not respond to emails seeking comment as of Wednesday evening.
Blackfriars Bridge is an 'extremely iconic space'
John Fyfe-Millar, a member of the Blackfriars Neighbourhood Association, said he appreciated that a major production chose to shoot in Blackfriars, saying it's an acknowledgement that what the community has is unique.
"I think that's why we see some of these cool things that are going on. The bridge itself is an extremely iconic space, not just in London, but really, in Canada as a whole."
Last summer, Blackfriars and Labatt Park played host to the filming of You Gotta Believe, a baseball movie starring Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear, Sarah Gadon, and Molly Parker, among others.
TV and film production has been steady in London, with 12 productions last year and at least five this year, said Andrew Dodd, manager of Film London, a production concierge launched by the London Economic Development Corporation in 2021.
"I've met with several location managers, just in the last couple of weeks, for some very exciting projects that are looking at London. It's a bit early to say, and I don't want to jinx anything, touch wood, but we're really hoping that these productions land," he said.
The film office has been working to promote the city as a one-stop-shop for producers, and earlier this year, asked Londoners to make their properties available for rent to production companies.
Film and television productions contributed around $3.15 billion to Ontario's economy in 2022, according to the provincial agency Ontario Creates, which offers tax incentives for productions, including the 35 per cent Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit.
Productions shooting in southwestern Ontario are eligible for a 10 per cent regional credit, Dodd said. He adds he's working with representatives from other municipalities to lobby the province for more regional incentives.
"If we in London can offer some sort of specific London-centered incentive package, we really think that might pull productions in this direction."
Motorheads has already filmed in Toronto this year, and was filming in Paris, Ont., this week, with the town standing in for a community in Allegheny County, Penn, according to the Hamilton Spectator.