Canary Black: Filming Locations Revealed
Canary Black is a spy thriller that follows Avery Graves ( Kate Beckinsale ), whose husband is kidnapped by a group of terrorists. Avery is a CIA agent and has been blackmailed into betraying her own country to save her husband. The movie is filled with action sequences and chases, so various shooting locations were used to provide the best experience possible. So, where was Canary Black filmed?
Canary Black started filming in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Many different locations throughout the city were used for shooting, and it is estimated that around 130 locations will be used as movie sets. The main shooting location is in Zagreb, while some other parts will be in another Croatian city, Rovinj.
The shooting started on 21 October 2022 in Zagreb, and it is estimated that the crew will shoot there until 31 January 2023. Many different locations in Zagreb are being used for filming. Still, to mimic the more ‘oriental’ atmosphere in the movie, Rovinj will also be used as a filming location. This movie is a thriller, meaning many action-packed scenes and an adrenaline rush are expected. So let’s see which locations are used to shoot those scenes and this movie in general.
Canary Black is mostly filmed in Zagreb in various locations
Canary Black is a spy thriller movie starring Kate Beckinsale. Kate is a well-known actress popular for her role in the sci-fi franchise Underworld, where he plays a vampire, Selena. However, in Canary Black, we see Kate in a role of a CIA agent that is cut off from her team and blackmailed into providing valuable information to a group of terrorists.
The main filming location of the movie is Croatia, and the vast majority of the movie is filmed in Croatia’s capital city, Zagreb. There are around 130 different locations around Zagreb that will be used as filming locations. For now, many known parts of the city are already used for shooting. A northern wing of Dinamo Zagreb’s football stadion in Maksimir was used as a movie set. The movie crew used the facilities of the Maksimir stadion, such as the basement and ground floor and the second and fifth floors.
Even before the shooting began, producer Carsten H. W. Lorenz said that many scenes would be shot in the exterior, so the traffic throughout the city will probably be blocked for some periods. And when the filming started, that was exactly the case as some of the Tram and bus lines were blocked in the areas of the city where the set was. This was necessary due to complex action scenes which require total control of the set.
The movie is filmed in the center of Zagreb and some other city areas. Other areas where the shooting is planned are The Stone Gate. The Stone Gate is one of the most important historical sights in the city’s Upper Town and is a part of the old city walls.
Other locations include several city squares such as Flower Square and Europan Square. Because of the movie shooting, the center of the city was partially closed to traffic in the late night hours. Citizens of Zagreb were thrilled and worried at the same time when they witnessed cars speeding on the streets, some of them crashing and creating sparks. Explosion sounds could also be heard, and that was all due to the creation of a perfect scenery and atmosphere on the streets, which were used as a movie set for this movie.
Various other locations around the city will also become a part of the movie set of this thriller movie.
It is worth mentioning that the main star of the movie, Kate Beckinsale, really enjoyed her stay in Zagreb during the filming of this movie. She regularly posted on social media about the great moments she had there. The most noticeable moments she posted were her attending the event where Croats welcomed their national football team back home from the Football World Cup in Qatar. Croatia won third place, and the whole nation was thrilled.
As this usually goes with thriller and spy movies where a lot of chasing and ‘racing with the time’ is happening, the storyline is spread to various locations around the globe. One smaller part of the storyline is set in Tokyo, Japan. And for that purpose, the filming crew will travel from Zagreb to another Croatian city Rovinj. Rovinj is a Croatian coastal city rich in historical heritage and development. Rovinj is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and is a popular tourist resort.
The filming was originally planned to be in Prague
Producer Carsten H.W. Lorenz revealed that the filming was originally planned in Prague, but unforeseen circumstances prevented that. After that, the goal was to find similar architecture to Prague’s. Greece, Turkey, and Serbia were also potential places taken into consideration for filming, but, in the end, the movie creators chose Croatia.
He said that they chose Croatia as the filming location because it is a country with rich experience in hosting big productions. And he was right about that because Croatia also hosted another big production crew in 2022 when parts of another thriller movie, The Gray Man, were also shot in Croatia, on the beautiful island of Mljet.
The exact release date of Canary Black is yet to be announced.
