Sterling K. Brown is both a star and executive producer of the upcoming Washington Black, which will be filmed in Shelburne. Image: Creative Commons.
Scouts from Disney+ Canada have been sniffing around the town of Shelburne for months as they prepare to begin filming a Sterling K. Brown-led miniseries.
The company plans to shoot at least part of its upcoming Washington Black miniseries in Shelburne this spring, bringing cast and a huge film crew to the area.
This week, the town of Shelburne sent out a request for accommodations operators to help house the crew.
The memo, which features the Disney+ logo, says the company wants to film in the area “sometime between March 1 and May 20,” for four to five weeks.
At their peak, they are anticipating 150 crew in the town, “from performers to boom operators.”
Harold Locke is the mayor of Shelburne.
He tells Huddle the town doesn’t “have the whole picture yet,” but is excited about the production.
“Scouts have been around now since late summer and I think we’ve had them from all parts of the group. The last visit was the production crew,” he said in a January 7 interview. “We are quite positive that we’re going to get some of the filming, we just don’t know how much.”
“We don’t think it’s going to be a big, big production, but we don’t think it’s a small one either. It will be good for the town economically, that’s for sure,” he added.
Locke pointed out that Shelburne is no stranger to hosting big film crews. Back when the provincial government offered a tax credit for film production, “we had a movie going pretty well all the time,” Locke said.
More than a decade ago, big-name productions like The Scarlet Letter, Virginia’s Run, and Moby Dick all filmed in the town.
“Scarlet Letter almost took over the town: It was the extras and… the cafeteria and the skills guys and actors and production—there wasn’t a part of the town that wasn’t involved,” he said.
He said most residents remember those big productions and how good they were for the area, so they’re excited to see a new project.
“It does benefit the town. You know, they pay good wages, they spend money. So we are looking forward to it,” he says.
Washington Black is based on Esi Edugyan’s bestselling novel of the same name.
It follows an 11-year-old boy who flees a Barbados sugar plantation and finds himself on a journey along the eastern coast of America.
The series stars Sterling K. Brown, who is known for his role on This Is Us. Brown plays Medwin Harris, the de facto Mayor of Black Halifax, who mentors the show’s young protagonist.
The show will eventually stream on Hulu, which is owned by Disney. Disney has not yet officially released production details.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
