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Articles by Sam Wiebe
How The Beachcombers and Danger Bay Brought B.C.’s Coast to Life on Screen
Excerpt from Shot in Vancouver: Adventures in Hollywood North by Sam Wiebe (2026), with permission from Arsenal Pulp Press. “Close-up on the face of Nick Adonidas.
Hatley Castle’s Life on Screen—From House of Horror to Superhero Mansion
An elite private school in Washington State. A crime lord’s home in England. The headquarters of a team of paranormal investigators. The mansions of Green Arrow and Lex Luthor. And of course, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Hatley Castle, on the grounds of Royal Roads University in Colwood just outside Victoria, is one of B.C.’s most recognizable and popular filming locations.
Hatley Castle’s Life on Screen—From House of Horror to Superhero Mansion
Drinking 7 hours ago 3 Of The Best Beginner Rye Whiskeys mashed.com - Stacie Adams • 7h Imbibers of whiskey are often quite serious about their drink of choice. Accordingly, it can feel a little intimidating for neophytes to learn the … Ice Cream 4 hours ago Stop Buying Ice Cream: How To Make Creamy Homemade Ice Cream With Or Without A Machine gamintraveler.com - Ruben Arribas • 4h Few things scream joy quite like a scoop of rich, creamy ice cream.
Hastings Racecourse’s Life on Film
In December 2025, when the Great Canadian Entertainment casino company announced the end of thoroughbred racing at Hastings Racecourse, it closed a chapter of Vancouver’s entertainment history. Aside from the track’s 136-year racing legacy, Hastings was also one of the city’s most identifiable and versatile filming locations, hosting stars including John Candy, appearing in TV shows such as The X-Files, and even inspiring a storyline about the future of the track itself.
The Star-Studded Legacy of a Vancouver Motel
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The Story Behind We’re No Angels-Hollywood North’s Star-Studded Bomb
How many films from the 1980s can boast a cast and crew as accomplished as We’re No Angels? Stars Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, and Demi Moore were supported by John C. Reilly, Wallace Shawn, and Vancouver’s Jay Brazeau. Director Neil Jordan (who would later direct The Crying Game and Interview With the Vampire) worked from a script by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet.
The Story Behind Vancouver Cult Classic Skip Tracer
Before Repo Man, before Glengarry Glen Ross, there was Skip Tracer. Made by a husband-and-wife director and producing team for less than $250,000, Skip Tracer follows a debt collector suffering pangs of conscience, as well as his share of beatings and stabbings. Shot (and set) in Vancouver in 1976, the film was critically acclaimed and the first Canadian feature to play at the New York Film Festival, earning comparisons to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation.
Before Stardom, Sandra Oh Starred in Two Memorable Films in Vancouver
In 1994, a then-unknown Sandra Oh starred in two films shot in Vancouver. Ahead of their time in many ways, the pair not only helped launch the career of one of Canada’s most recognizable stars but also established a creative partnership between Oh and writer-director Mina Shum that has lasted three decades.
That ‘Friday the 13th’ When Jason Takes the SkyTrain
It’s been called “unwatchable” by Entertainment Weekly, the worst film in the franchise, and is synonymous with every major criticism of “shot-in-Vancouver” films: cheap, cheesy and obviously set someplace else. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan remains the most critically despised entry in a series that was never generously reviewed. Why is this 1989 horror film so hated? Where did things go wrong?
The X-Files, Vancouver, and a Legendary Backlash
It’s been nearly three decades since The X-Files star David Duchovny’s infamous spat with—seemingly—the entire city of Vancouver. On October 14, 1997, Duchovny appeared on Late Night With Conan O’Brien in part to promote the Season 5 premiere of The X-Files. The talk show host asked the actor to comment on rumours that he wished to move the hit science-fiction series from Vancouver, where it had filmed since its first season, to Los Angeles, where Duchovny and his wife lived.
Survival, Survivalism, Slaughter: Why Nature and Wilderness Work Well in Crime Fiction
The woods are never just the woods. That’s true in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, in Hawthorne and in Jack London, and in crime stories dealing with nature and survivalism, a term that can include living off the land, or “prepping” for the end of civilization. Article continues after advertisement In high school English we learn to identify the three types of conflict (Can you name them off the top of your head? Answer at the end).
One of the Great American Novels Was Adapted in Nelson, B.C.
A male director from Scotland worked with a nearly all-female cast to adapt a celebrated American novel in small-town B.C. Almost 40 years after it vanished from theatres, Housekeeping is still finding its audience. The story behind the film involves last-minute casting shakeups, two Kootenay politicians going up against a railroad company—and a pair of scissors.
50 Years Ago, Mark Vonnegut Looked to B.C. for a New Frontier
Mark Vonnegut wasn’t the only college-age American heading north to British Columbia in the early 1970s. Hoping to avoid the Vietnam draft and searching for a utopian way of life outside the conformity and materialism of Nixon’s America, he and some fellow expatriates bought land north of Powell River and established a communal farm. After a few months, though, he began to suffer a severe mental illness that would lead to two stays in a psychiatric clinic in New Westminster.
How Roxanne Altered the Course of Steve Martin’s Career and Filmmaking in B.C.
In the mid-1980s, Steve Martin transformed from a superstar comedian with a manic, absurdist sensibility into a respected actor in films with heart and mainstream appeal. Key to that transformation was Roxanne, the 1987 romantic comedy he wrote, produced, and starred in, filmed in Nelson, B.C. Marking a major shift from his standup career, playing the long-nosed C.D. Bales was the first time Martin “felt respected in a film role,” according to the actor’s IMDB trivia page.
In 1982, B.C. Played Host to a Bizarre, Daring Gun Heist on the Set of First Blood
An arsenal “large enough to start a small-scale war.” These words from The Province could have just as easily referred to the variety of genuine firearms used by John Rambo in First Blood. The film launched a blockbuster franchise for its star Sylvester Stallone and put the B.C. town of Hope on theatre screens across the world. But on Tuesday, January 26, 1982, First Blood was making news for the shocking robbery of restricted firearms from the film’s North Shore set.
Fancy Seeing You Here
Call it research. I went down to the riot because I wanted to know what tear gas smelled like. A writer should know such things, I thought. Be familiar with humanity in extremes. They say write what you know, but who knows anything, really? In 2011, I was still at community college, part of a cohort of wannabe writers. I was failing screenwriting, despite the many Richard Price scripts I read and plagiarized.
How Two Stephen King Adaptations Brought the King of Horror to B.C.
Author Stephen King has long been associated with his home state of Maine. The fictional Maine towns of Derry and Castle Rock recur throughout the horror icon’s work. It may then surprise some to learn how vital B.C. has been in establishing the geography of early King adaptations, namely TV projects from the 1990s. In It, six adults return to Derry to face the nameless monster that tormented them in childhood.
How SFU Became Hollywood’s Face of the Future
Antigen. Genecore. Groundstar. Bartok Industries. More nefarious and twisted science experiments have been conducted on the grounds of Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus than any other place in the country—at least on film. Since its construction in 1965, SFU has been a frequent location for movie and television productions.
How Donald Sutherland Helped Put Hollywood North on the Map
In the late 1970s, during a run of critical and commercial successes including M*A*S*H, Kelly’s Heroes, Klute, Don’t Look Now, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Animal House, Donald Sutherland made a pair of films in British Columbia in quick succession. The espionage thriller Bear Island and the romantic crime caper A Man, a Woman and a Bank (both 1979) allowed the actor to play traditional leading roles rather than the offbeat character parts he was known for.
A Centrefold Model, a Shocking Murder, and the Vancouver Film It Inspired
In 1980, the murder-suicide of a Vancouver couple shocked and horrified Hollywood. Model and actress Dorothy Stratten and her husband Paul Snider were found in their West Los Angeles home, both dead of gunshot wounds. At a point when Stratten’s career was about to reach new heights, the jealous and desperate Snider killed his wife and then himself.
The British Columbia Roots of Television’s Greatest Defense Attorney
When Raymond Burr died in 1993, The New York Times reported that the Perry Mason star had been married three times; that his first wife had died “when the plane in which she was traveling was shot down by the Germans,” and that his only son Michael had died of leukemia. In fact Burr had only been married once, had no children, and had been in a relationship with his producing partner Robert Benevides since 1960. Burr’s life and career are full of such contradictions.
The Highlander TV Series’ Swashbuckling Path Through Vancouver
“I am Duncan MacLeod, born four hundred years ago in the Highlands of Scotland. I am Immortal and I am not alone. For centuries we’ve waited for the time of the Gathering, when the stroke of a sword and a fall of a head will release the power of the Quickening. In the end, there can be only one.” Highlander is one of the most enduring and popular franchises of all time, an ambitious blend of fantasy, history, romance, swordplay, mythology, and special effects, all set to a soundtrack by Queen.
The Highlander TV Series’ Swashbuckling Path Through Vancouver
6 hours ago Authorities believe the three sons who were fatally shot by their father in their Oklahoma home this week in an apparent murder-suicide were “hunted” by him. According to Oklahoma City police, Jonathon Candy, 42, killed his wife, Lindsay Candy, 39, after the two "became involved in an altercation" …
How Veterans Took Over the Hotel Vancouver and Helped Solve a Housing Crisis
“We’re taking over the Hotel Vancouver—sit tight.” On Saturday, January 26, 1946, sergeant-at-arms Bob McEwen led 35 former servicemen and women from the Legion Hall to the old Hotel Vancouver. After announcing his intentions to the hotel security guard, McEwen and the other veterans swarmed inside and occupied the building. By 10 p.m., 100 veterans with their spouses and children were lodged within the hotel.
Sam Wiebe, Author at MONTECRISTO
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How a Former Prisoner of War Became One of Vancouver’s Most Successful Writers
In 1962, filmmaker James Clavell turned down a trip to Germany where he had been asked to do on-set rewrites of The Great Escape, the blockbuster film he’d written starring Steve McQueen. Instead, Clavell travelled to Vancouver to direct a low-budget revenge film starring unknown actors and produced by a fledgling B.C. company.
The 5 best crime fiction and thriller books of 2023
From India to New Zealand to the West Coast of Canada, 2023 provided a plethora of intriguing psychological thrillers and crime novels to satisfy any genre fan. These novels provide much-needed respite from the daily grind, while also being fearless enough to address current hot-button issues from race relations in the American South to the housing crisis in Vancouver.
The 5 best crime fiction and thriller books of 2023
From India to New Zealand to the West Coast of Canada, 2023 provided a plethora of intriguing psychological thrillers and crime novels to satisfy any genre fan. These novels provide much-needed respite from the daily grind, while also being fearless enough to address current hot-button issues from race relations in the American South to the housing crisis in Vancouver.
The 5 best crime fiction and thriller books of 2023
From India to New Zealand to the West Coast of Canada, 2023 provided a plethora of intriguing psychological thrillers and crime novels to satisfy any genre fan. These novels provide much-needed respite from the daily grind, while also being fearless enough to address current hot-button issues from race relations in the American South to the housing crisis in Vancouver. Already a Subscriber?
The 5 best crime fiction and thriller books of 2023
From India to New Zealand to the West Coast of Canada, 2023 provided a plethora of intriguing psychological thrillers and crime novels to satisfy any genre fan. These novels provide much-needed respite from the daily grind, while also being fearless enough to address current hot-button issues from race relations in the American South to the housing crisis in Vancouver. Already a Subscriber?
The Horror Classic That Ushered In a New Era in B.C. Filmmaking
Asked to name his favourite horror movies, Martin Scorsese chose classics like Psycho and The Shining, but also a lesser-known 1980 film called The Changeling. Shot in Vancouver, directed by Peter Medak, and starring Oscar-winner George C. Scott, The Changeling helped usher in a new period of Hollywood filmmaking using British Columbia locations. The story of the Genie Award-winning film is also the story of how Vancouver became Hollywood North.
Two Cult Thrillers Reveal What Vancouver Fears About Itself
The boy sits on a bench in the rain, shivering. From a window in her manor home overlooking Tatlow Park, a lonely woman watches him. She decides to invite him in. The boy can’t speak, but he’s grateful for shelter and food and a warm bed. The two are from different generations: an older, genteel Vancouver where desire and sex aren’t spoken of, and the radical counter-culture emerging at the end of the ’60s. Soon they are caught in a deadly game of obsession and desire.
Hadfield, We Have a Problem
On vacation in Tel Aviv, former American test pilot Kaz Zemeckis spots something falling in the sky: a MiG-25 Foxbat, the Soviet Union’s most advanced fighter plane, seemingly shot down over Israeli airspace. The pilot of the plane is Alexander Vasilyevich Abramovich, known as Grief, and he’s willing to defect to America, offering the Foxbat as enticement.
The Worst Movie Ever Shot in Vancouver
When Rotten Tomatoes put together its ranking of the 100 worst movies of all time, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever topped the list. The 2002 action film, starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, earned this distinction by receiving the largest number of negative reviews: 119 professional critics panned the film.
1774 Hardwired for defiance
Sunset and Jericho: A Wakeland Novel by Sam Wiebe Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023 $24.95 / 9781990776236 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Regarding Sunset and Jericho, an expected question might be “So, is it any good?” Happily, the unhesitant answer (“Yes, absolutely”) inspires a better follow-up: “Oh, what’s so worthwhile?” The easy reply is “New Westminster’s Sam Wiebe.” This author’s tough, wounded, and increasingly embittered character (Dave Wakeland) ought to be a household name.
Sunset and Jericho ebook by Sam Wiebe - Rakuten Kobo
The fourth thrilling instalment of the Wakeland detective series, exploring the depths of Vancouver’s criminal underworld. The mayor’s brother is missing. A transit cop lies beaten and blinded, her service weapon stolen. A new series of graffiti tags are appearing, linked to an underground group calling themselves The Death of Kings. Class warfare has broken out on the streets of Vancouver, and PI Dave Wakeland finds himself on the front lines—but unsure which side he’s on.
Sunset and Jericho: A Wakeland Novel
The fourth thrilling installment of the Wakeland detective series, exploring the depths of Vancouver's criminal underworld. The mayor's brother is missing. A transit cop lies beaten and blinded, her service weapon stolen. A new series of graffiti tags are appearing, linked to an underground group calling themselves The Death of Kings. Class warfare has broken out on the streets of Vancouver, and PI Dave Wakeland finds himself on the front lines--but unsure which side he's on.
How a Rough Childhood in Vancouver Inspired One of America’s Greatest Crime Novelists
When future crime novelist Ross Macdonald was not yet six years old, his father abandoned him and his mother, leaving them penniless in a Vancouver waterfront boarding house. His first memories of his father, he later told actor Robert Easton, were connected to the sea. The boy—whose real name was Kenneth Millar—was born in 1915 in Los Gatos, California, moving to Vancouver a year later.
The Vancouver-Born War Hero Who Became a Scotsman in Space
“Beam me up, Scotty” is perhaps the most famous line in Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry’s television blend of science fiction, adventure, optimism, and inclusivity. What’s less well known is that Montgomery Scott, the cantankerous engineer of the U.S.S. Enterprise at whom the command was directed, was in fact played by a Vancouver-born Second World War veteran and method-trained actor whose real-life adventures were as strange and bold as the show’s.
Two 1970s Genre-Bending Western Movies Have Roots in British Columbia
The Western is the most American of genres, but in the 1970s, as the United States’ idea of itself began to change and art-house cinema reflected the country’s disillusionment with authority, two films with British Columbia connections challenged the Western’s foundational beliefs about morality, violence, and community. In 1971, West Vancouver became the rainy Washington State town of Presbyterian Church for Robert Altman’s dreamy, seasonal, revisionist Western McCabe & Mrs.
The Private Eye As Family Man
By and large, the private eye has never been big on family. Other peoples’ families, sure. But Sam Spade showed more interest in his partner’s wife than in finding one of his own, and A is for Alibi begins with Kinsey Milhone introducing herself as “twice divorced, no kids.” While there are exceptions, the PI has generally been a creature of solitude, give or take a sidekick or secretary. No one of his generation had more success telling PI stories in Hollywood than Shane Black.
The Vancouver-Shot Kung Fu Hip Hop Film That Was (Almost) a Cultural Sensation
There are very few films best remembered for the cultural impact they could have made. Romeo Must Die is one of them.
25-Years Ago, a Vancouver-Shot Movie Broke Jackie Chan into Hollywood Stardom
Skim the reviews for Rumble in the Bronx, and you’ll notice a pattern of both reverence and disdain. Disdain for the plot, costumes, overdubbing, and setting. Especially the setting. The Bronx, reviewers assure, does not have a golf course with a mountain range behind it. All this is usually written to sweep away the obvious so reviews can focus on the action. The jump from the roof of a Cordova Street parking garage.
How a Century-Old Vancouver Mental Hospital Became a Film Industry Hot Spot
It’s the most-filmed location in the Pacific Northwest, familiar to audiences the world over. It’s the laboratory where Ryan Reynolds becomes Deadpool, and the Chinese prison from which Jet Li escapes in Romeo Must Die. In the X-Files episode “Excelsis Dei,” Mulder and Scully investigate it as a haunted seniors home. Riverdale, Supernatural, and countless DC superhero shows have filmed among its weathered exteriors.
Team Joins Rally Health and Kevin Hart for Rally HealthFest NYC
Rally Cycling’s title sponsor Rally Health℠ and actor, comedian and Rally Health Ambassador Kevin Hart will host a free health festival, Rally HealthFest, at Nelson A. Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City, lower Manhattan on Saturday, July 30, to spread the message of an active, healthy lifestyle and build Diamondback bikes for kids.
8 Million Ways to Die (1986): An Autopsy of the Great L.A. Noir That Never Was
So what the fuck happened? * * * 8 Million Ways to Die is a mess. Not a glorious mess, or an interesting mess. It’s not a fiasco on the scale of Super Mario Brothers, or a spectacle of excess like Bonfire of the Vanities. It’s not a well-meaning genre exercise like One from the Heart. There is no cult following around 8 Million Ways to Die. There likely never will be.
Diversity in crime writing: five Canadian titles to add to your to-be-read pile
Crime writer Sam Wiebe believes Canadian crime-writing needs more diverse voices. These five titles chosen by Wiebe are a great place to start. Montreal Noir (Akashic Press)Edited by Jacques Filippi and John McFetridge As the editors state, “Montreal’s long history is dominated by cultures coming together, almost. And cultures coming apart, almost.
Diversity in crime writing: Sam Wiebe urges his genre to reckon with inclusion
Crime writer Sam Wiebe (Mel Yap) Genre is a dirty word in Canadian fiction. Festivals and conferences don’t know what to do with us; though often included on the basis of popularity, our work is rarely treated as being capable of thematic depth or social engagement. That sort of critical exclusion gives rise to a tendency to dismiss criticism altogether – including self-criticism – which all writing communities sorely need. Part of this is our own fault.
Vancouver Noir (Akashic Noir)
is an excellent anthology that would appeal to short-story fans of all types--even those who don't read the genre on a regular basis...Like the earlier volumesand, the new anthology serves as a fantastic introduction for those unfamiliar with the genre and a reminder that Canada, bursting with amazing writers, is one of the strongest countries for crime writing in the world."-- "The rain-soaked Pacific Northwest may not be a tradition setting for 'noir' but with a city in flux, like...
Vancouver Noir | Quill and Quire
The dark underbelly of Vancouver is exposed in the crime anthology Vancouver Noir, the third Canadian book in the infamous and ongoing international noir series by Akashic Books. Edited by Sam Wiebe, author of the very fine Dave Wakeland crime series (Invisible Dead, Cut You Down), Vancouver Noir is an excellent anthology that would appeal to short-story fans of all types – even those who don’t read the genre on a regular basis.
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