TV and movie film crews are as common as dirt on the North Shore these days but at least one local production was raising some eyebrows this week – particularly when a swastika-emblazoned plane was spotted flying low around West Vancouver.
Freelance photographer Jorge Parra was out shooting some photos in Whytecliff Park on Monday when he noticed a vintage plane circling. When he got home and zoomed in on his digital images, he noticed the Nazi insignia.
“I thought, really? Where is this coming from?” Parra said. “I thought maybe Donald Trump was coming to visit.”
But, thankfully, the plane was only temporary given a facelift for the TV adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle. The show presents an alternate history, one in which the Nazis won the Second World War and North America is divided into German and Japanese controlled territories. The show is only available on the on-demand streaming service Amazon Prime.
The plane was a 1944 Grumman Goose, a model which, ironically, was used by the Royal Canadian Air Force as a transport plane in the Second World War.
The same show’s film crew drew some attention in Eagle Harbour Tuesday when they blew up a vintage boat off Eagle Island, a scene that will be incorporated into the show’s second season.
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue was on hand for the 50-foot fireball and actors being launched into the air from hydraulic catapults and representatives from the Vancouver Aquarium were also monitoring to make sure there was no threat to aquatic life.
“Everybody seemed to be very happy,” said assistant fire chief Jeff Bush. “There haven’t been any complaints. Usually there’s one or two people who complain. It ran very smoothly.”
There is no indication the show will be filming many more scenes locally, according to the District of West Vancouver.
