Earlier this month it was reported on The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) Montreal website that The Alienist TV series would be shooting in Montreal this summer. On Wednesday of last week, however, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva reported that, “The Quebec city [Montreal] is losing two American series to New York, as I hear TNT’s straight-to-series The Alienist also recently decided to relocate.”
At this stage, I have been unable to find another source to confirm the report that shooting has moved to New York City. Nonetheless, the series is no longer listed on ACTRA Montreal “What’s Shooting” pre-production list, so at the very least it appears to have been confirmed that shooting has moved from Montreal. It would certainly be exciting to hear that the production has moved to New York — after all, many of the book’s settings still exist, as 17th Street’s maps of Alienist locations demonstrate — so as more news comes to light about this development, it will be reported here.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) Montreal has listed The Alienist TV series on their “What’s Shooting” pre-production list, indicating that Montreal will be getting transformed into 1896 New York City for the series. The listing also indicates that shooting will be taking place in summer this year. While this is clearly an interesting development, it is not altogether unexpected: Montreal has doubled as New York City in a number of films recently, including Brooklyn (2015) and The Walk (2015). You can see the Québec Film and Television Council photos offering Montreal as a shooting location to represent early 20th century New York City here.
Wherever and whenever they are shooting, let’s hope that the script is being reworked before it takes place. For any Alienist readers who did not see the post about the audition recordings surfacing, the excerpts revealed that significant changes were made in the scenes read during casting, both to the characters and the plot. To learn more, you can view the original post here.
Over the past few weeks a considerable amount of news has been released about TNT’s TV adaptation of The Alienist, along with Caleb Carr’s upcoming novel, Surrender, New York. As more news will continue to appear over the coming weeks and months for both of these projects, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to highlight a few social media channels that may help you stay up to date. In addition to these, remember that the fastest way to stay up to date is via Twitter and Google+.
Instagram
If you haven’t already taken a peek at 17th Street’s new instagram account, I recommend you do so. In addition to posting occasional news from 17th Street, it is currently featuring a virtual tour of several New York City locations from The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness, presented in the order they appear in the novels along with relevant quotes from the novels. So far (see below) we have visited John at 19 Washington Square North, accompanied him to the first murder scene at the Williamsburg Bridge, and have arrived at the Kreizler Institute for Children to visit Dr. Kreizler. What location will be next? To find out, follow us @17thstreetnet!
http://www.instagram.com/p/BC6_BY6HRBR/
http://www.instagram.com/p/BDHnVklnRDU/
http://www.instagram.com/p/BDcSPWmnRFN/
Facebook
Although 17th Street does not have a dedicated Facebook page, you can find the latest information about Surrender, New York at a Facebook page that has recently appeared. As we get closer to the release of the novel, presumably the dates and locations of book signings, along with any other news that may be of interest of Caleb Carr’s readers, will be released there as well as on 17th Street.
View Part One and Part Two of Following The Footsteps of Dr. Kreizler: A Travel Blog.
As regular visitors would be aware, I took a slightly different approach with the 17th Street blog last week by posting up an account of my recent Alienist-related travels that took me from Toronto, down through New York state following the Hudson River, before finally arriving on the Upper West Side of New York City. This week, I conclude my travel blog with an account of the second half of my holiday in New York, predominantly spent in the historic districts around Union Square where I was finally able to visit the locations that make up the heart of the Alienist novels. Enjoy!
The Inn At Irving Place
Following my short walk in Central Park with thunder rolling in the distance and storm clouds threatening, I moved from my hotel on the Upper West Side to my second hotel in the East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District where I stayed for my final five nights in the city. When I had originally decided that I wanted to spend at least a portion of my trip down in the Union Square area, I looked at a number of different hotel options but ultimately couldn’t go past The Inn at Irving Place.
Ideally situated, the boutique hotel offered an experience I would not get anywhere else: an opportunity to get a taste of my favourite characters’ lifestyles by staying in a restored New York brownstone located only two blocks from Gramercy Park to the north, two blocks from Stuyvesant Square to the east, and one block from Union Square to the west. After checking in with the manager whose desk was located in the front parlor (see photos 3-4 below), I stayed in the “O Henry room” (see photos 6-12 below) which was tastefully appointed with genuine antiques and was well-proportioned, quiet, and had an unexpectedly large bathroom (for New York City). Located at the back of the brownstone on the second floor, the room had a pleasant view of the terrace and surrounding buildings (see photo 13 below). My regular breakfast spot in the tea room on the first floor also offered a delightful view, both inside and out (see photos 14-15 below).
All in all, I couldn’t have been happier with my choice of hotel and highly recommend it for any Alienist readers or lovers of history who want to experience life from an earlier time in a restored New York brownstone. Watch the steps, though — they are steep! (Something I experienced later on at the Merchant’s House Museum, too.)
Given the storm that had moved in, I decided to stay close to the hotel for the rest of the day by getting a spot of lunch at Barnes & Noble on Union Square before going for a wander across to a very wet Stuyvesant Square where I saw an astonishing number of squirrels — a novelty for this Australian, and the most I had seen in any one spot during my entire trip! — until I finally admitted defeat and retreated back to The Inn. I couldn’t help feeling on this first afternoon as I listened to the thunder overhead and saw the trees outside my window being blown around that I had been transported into the summer storm described in Chapter 53 of The Angel of Darkness which the characters quietly wait out in the safety of Dr. Kreizler’s home, watching the wind-tossed trees in Stuyvesant Square across the road.
