A Dark Rising Cometh for local actors, film crew

This summer will see the horizon's expand for Canadian film makers and actors with a unique North Bay connection.

Jim Calarco, actor, director and casting agent, says his niece and female heroine of Dark Rising: The Adventures of Summer Vale, Brigette Kingsley, is at work on the next instalment of the indie horror series.

Lead Actress and Executive Producer on the project, Kingsley has dipped into North Bay's talent pool hiring a number of actors and film crew for the summer shoot. There will be 13 one hour episodes for a television series based on the movie Dark Rising, created by Canadian director Andrew Cymek.

Kingsley, originally from Sudbury, already has numerous productions under her belt and many in the works, with a career that many would consider remarkable in its diversity.

For the moment, Kingsley is back in her hometown and in her element, filming five episodes of the television series, Dark Rising, Warrior of Worlds, a television Sci-Fantasy/Comedy about the last "clear" humans with a memory of the past after most of the earth is taken over.

Filmed partly in Paris, France, the series will have notables such as former North Bay resident Scott Thompson of the Kid's the Hall and Canadian comedian Colin Mochrie sharing the small screen with Kingsley.

Produced by Black Walk, the final project will be packed with creatures, supernatural forces and struggles for the bikini clad beauty as she battles forces that have been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.

Jamie Lyle of Baytoday.ca had the pleasure of meeting with the star of the Dark Rising series, Brigette Kingsley, for a conversation about the movie franchise and her career as it accelerates into the stratosphere.

LYLE: Brigitte, you're well known as the star of the Dark Rising move and television series and there's going to be a one filmed in Sudbury. Could you tell me about that?

KINGSLEY: Yes, we're shooting five episodes in Sudbury and the reason that we've went to Sudbury this time around is that when we did our location scouting, because this is set in a northern mining town community, we decided that Copper Cliff was the perfect location for it.

LYLE: But in general, you're a fan of Northern Ontario?

KINGSLEY: I love Northern Ontario! Our first choice, obviously, was to come back to Northern Ontario because the people are very supportive and everybody's been extremely collaborative with the film. There's also been a lot of support from the HOHFC (Northern Ontario Heritage Fund). It's been very helpful for all the producers. So that's all why we set up shop here again.
LYLE: What many North Bayites also like is the fact that you tend to have locals used in every aspect of your projects.

KINGSLEY: It's been amazing to see the growth of the film industry in Northern Ontario because the first that the we came up, we were competing with The Kid's the Hall (Death Comes to Town) and Oliver Sherman and so when it came to cast and crew, it was very difficult for us to find people that we interested and could come on our team. This time around, we've had such an amazing response. All of our crew is from North Bay and Sudbury. Everybody's grown so much and they're all very talented and experienced within the past three or four years that we're super excited that they're able to do this.

LYLE: Let's talk about Dark Rising. I find it to be a classic cult series. Do you find it to be the same?

KINGSLEY: I do. The first three Dark Rising were very niche, very genre. This time around, we’ve been working with the executive producer, Mihkel Harilaid to bring it into a more commercial side of it. So it's got a much bigger appeal in terms of the genre. It's a little bit darker but less of that sort of B-movie aspect to it. Summer Vales much more sophisticated. She might be wearing a little bit more clothes this time (laughs). We have a brilliant cast that includes Colin Mochrie and Scott Thompson, Brian Krause from Charmed and Jeremy London from Party of Five. So we've got some solid performers that are hopefully going to bring it into a more commercial series.

LYLE: You're looking to expand in the international movie market as well?

KINGSLEY: Yes. Dark Rising is currently in Japan, I think that there's a deal that also went through in the U.K. Thailand. Dark Rising 1 is all over the U.S. So with this new distribution partner in the U.S. (Marvista Entertainment), they are going to push both Dark Rising 2, the last series and the new series to broadcasters and we're going to be open to a whole new market out there.

LYLE: Dark Rising was recently nominated for a comedy award.

KINGSLEY: Yes. Dark Rising 2 was also nominated for Best Film and I was nominated for Best Actress in a Feature Film, so if anybody can come and vote, that would be great. It's on canadiancomedy.ca and the public is able to vote for, at least, best film. It's the only industry that could only vote for the actors but that would be much appreciated. Other than that, keep an eye out for the Dark Rising series. We're going to have an app coming out very soon with a bunch of original Dark Rising contents and we'll be at Fan Expo again in Toronto, which is August 23-26. Come on out and say “Hi!”

Dark Rising will be filming in Sudbury until August 17th. Extras interested in doing possible background work can please contact [email protected].