Sci-fi comedy filmed in producer’s hometown

James Van der Woerd is part of team behind ‘Relax, I’m from the Future’

Making a science fiction comedy in Hamilton is a homecoming of sorts for Ancaster’s James Van der Woerd.

After making films in Niagara Falls, Toronto, Buffalo and New Mexico, he says it’s good to work on a production in his hometown.

“It holds a special place in my heart,” says Van der Woerd, one of the producers behind Wango Films’ “Relax, I’m From the Future.” “It’s nice to be in our own backyard.”

The film, featuring New Zealand actor-comic Rhys Darby and Toronto actress Garbrielle Graham, has been in production since the end of November.

The film also stars Toronto actor Julian Richings, a Dora Award winner who has been in everything from “Hard Core Logo” (1996) to “Percy Jackson & the Olympian: The Lightning Thief ” (2010) to “Orphan Black” (2014-2016).

It is the first feature film from Toronto filmmaker Luke Higginson and is based on a short he made with the same name in 2013.

The movie shot scenes in the main branch of the Hamilton Library on York Boulevard at the end of November.

It then moved to Ancaster in the first few days of December and set up on Clarendon Drive and Hillcrest Avenue. Street hockey and chase scenes were filmed near the

Ancaster Radial Line Trail.

On Dec. 6, the crew and cast filmed interior scenes at the Absinthe Hamilton bar on King William Street in downtown Hamilton. The movie moved to Dundas on Dec. 7 and set up its base camp at the Copetown Community Centre. Filming took place at the Dundas Valley Conservation Area.

This past week, it filmed scenes at The Cotton Factory and Bayfront Studios. It is set to wrap up filming Dec. 22.

According to a synopsis: A man from the future, now trapped in the past, tries to make a life for himself, oblivious to the consequences he has set in motion.

The short by Higginson was about a man whose suicide attempt is interrupted by a man who claims he is from the future. It starred Hamilton actor Rick Roberts and Zachary Bennett from London, Ont.

Higginson was a film editor on Van der Woerd’s last picture, Wander (2020) that was filmed in New Mexico and starred Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart. He gave his expanded script to Van der Woerd and producer Tim Doiron, who co-founded Los Angeles/Toronto-based Wango Films, and Van

der Woerd said “here we are.”

“It’s a really good script,” he said. “He’s a natural director.”

Van der Woerd has been involved with seven productions since he graduated from the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University in 2011. Apart from Jones and Eckhart, he has worked with Christopher Lloyd in “Dead Before Dawn 3D” (2012) and in “88” (2015).

Van der Woerd, 32, is the father of a baby boy and is a graduate of Calvin Christian School and Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School. He remains tied to Ancaster — he lives in the house he grew up in after buying it from his parents.

Van der Woerd said the comedy will likely come out in 2023.

Rhys Darby has numerous movie and TV appearances, including the Jim Carrey 2008 vehicle “Yes Man” and such shows as “Modern Family,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and “Fresh off the Boat.”

Graham is on the BET series “Twenties” and has been in “In the Shadow of the Moon” on Netflix and “Lucky Day” on Amazon.

Harry Potter fans would probably like to know that Ron Weasley was in town.

Rupert Grint, who played Weasley in the film series, was in Hamilton last month filming an episode of “Guillermo del Toro Presents 12 After Midnight,” a horror anthology show.

The Daily Mail in Britain ran two photos of Grint filming his episode at the Scottish Rite. They only identified the photos as being taken in Ontario and said the show is called “Cabinet of Curiosities.”