Russell Girl Filming in Port Credit

Update June 2010 filming - Two movie shoots in Port Credit:
See Lost Girl and Covert Affairs posts.

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original  post:
It seems there's always something interesting to see when you go for a walk in the village of Port Credit in Mississauga. Some days, it's nothing more exciting than mallards swimming at the marina; other times, it's something wonderful like a Jazz festival.

This week, the excitement level is closer to the 'Jazz festival' rating: The Russell Girl, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie for CBS that's in production in Toronto is doing some location shoots here in Port Credit, about 3 blocks from my home. (Look for the pylons and you'll find it.)

Signs around the neighbourhood direct cast and crew to various camps, like the Crew base camp set up near here (photo below). Others direct them to the feeding and waiting area in a local church. Everyone seems to take all the activity in stride, save a few impatient motorists who were honking horns to hurry along a crew member trying to remove pylons along Lakeshore.

The Russell Girl cast includes Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Jennifer Ehle, Tim DeKay, Henry Czerny and Amber Tamblyn, who plays "Sarah Russell, a 23-year-old aspiring medical school student who makes a rare visit to her small hometown." The houses being used for the small town location are right from central casting -- ie they couldn't be more perfect. As I walked down the street (where the night before, the big light on a crane was simulating daylight), I noticed each house had a 'new' old fashioned mailbox out front, including one with 'Russell' stamped in red letters. Another front yard had wonderful new astroturf-style grass -- we've had a very dry summer here and it must have needed help.

When Russell Girl wraps, we'll be back to looking for excitement from simpler things, like these Canada geese on a pond in Saddrington Park.

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Update January 25, 2008
Half-page ad in the Toronto Star today for the premiere to air Sunday January 27, 2008
Great picture of Amber Tamblyn standing on the tree-lined street in Port Credit!

Update March 21, 2008 Good Friday in Mississauga.
On the street where the Russell Girl lived, Port Credit, Ontario