Katie Holmes is in Victoria shooting ‘The Boy 2’

CHEK

WATCH: After a record-breaking year for the Victoria film industry, Katie Holmes is now in town shooting a sequel to the $8 million horror movie “The Boy.” Tess van Straaten reports.

Movie trucks come and go from a secluded property in Central Saanich where Katie Holmes is shooting a new Hollywood blockbuster.

But no one’s talking on the highly secretive set of “The Boy 2.”

It’s a sequel to the 2016 horror movie “The Boy” about a creepy, life-size porcelain doll that causes some disturbing events at the English country manor.

The doll’s American Nanny, played by Lauren Cohan , soon discovers the doll is actually alive.

Victoria’s Craigdarroch Castle was the fictional ‘Heelshire Mansion’ in the first movie.

Holmes, one of the bigger names to film in Victoria in the last few years, now has the starring role in the sequel.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the plot sees a young family move into the mansion, where their young son soon makes a disturbing friend.

Busiest January on record for South Island film industry

Landing a major motion picture like “The Boy 2″comes on the heels of another record-breaking year for the Victoria film industry.

And 2019 is already looking promising.

“This is the busiest January we’ve ever had,” says film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert of Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission. “We’ve already had a television movie from Front Street Pictures that just finished shooting and a Bollywood film.”

The movie magic resulted in a direct spend of $21 million last year in the local economy.

That beats the previous record of $18 million in 2015.

But to grow the industry even more —and attract more big-budget productions — a large production studio is needed.

“That’s really our aim, over the next couple of years to try to bring a studio to Victoria,” says Gilbert. “Hopefully we can take a bigger chunk of that $3.4 billion industry that’s in B.C. right now.”

“The Boy 2” will continue filming at undisclosed locations on the South Island until sometime in April.

Tess van StraatenTess van Straaten

Recent Stories

Send us your news tips and videos!