Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton gets a new (fictional) team for ‘Accused’ TV shoot
Published September 7, 2022 at 11:08 am
Before anyone panics and thinks the CFL decided to have American teams again, the Sacramento Seals exist only in the universe of a forthcoming crime anthology series on FOX.
Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, of course, is the domicile of football’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and soccer’s Forge FC. On Wednesday, though, the ever-versatile stadium was getting ready for its close-up as a filming location for “Accused,” a Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television remake of the award-winning British series of the same name. A source confirmed to inTheHammer that the Sacramento Seals are a fictional soccer team that draws in as a plot device.
How much of Tim Hortons Field will be needed for the shoot, of course, will not be known until the series debuts some time in 2023. While the Sacramento Seals logo has been added at field level, the shoot did not require covering up recognition of the Grey Cups that the Tiger-Cats won in the 20th century.
A creative hook for “Accused” is that each episode is told from the defendant’s perspective through flashbacks. The audience is dropped into their trial right from the jump without knowing anything about their alleged crime.
For instance, in one episode, Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and Aisha Dee (“The Bold Type”) play a couple who took the law into their own hands and tracked down a white nationalist who ran his car into a group of protesters. (That would appear to be based on the killing of Heather Heyer at a protest in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.)
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As an anthology series, individual actors may only have a short stint in the series. That said, IMDb lists a cast that also includes Michael Chiklis (“The Commish,” “Winning Time”), Wendell Pierce (“Treme,” “The Wire”) and comedian Whitney Cummings.
“Law & Order” alumna Jill Hennessy is also performing in the series. Canadian cast members include Aaron Ashmore and Shawn Doyle.
A team called the Sacramento Seals might be a bit on the nose for a sports fan in Hamilton.
Back in the ’90s, the Canadian Football League infamously attempted an expansion into the United States. The first American-based team was the Sacramento Gold Miners. The CFL U.S. experiment lasted only three seasons and was widely lampooned, although the franchise fees arguably helped the CFL’s finances and gave it the momentum to survive. Another legacy of the U.S. experiment was that the league’s all-time leading passer, Anthony Calvillo, broke into the CFL with a U.S. team, the Las Vegas Posse.
That Sacramento Seals logo also has a slight resemblance to the crest of the Saint John Sea Dogs. Back in June, the Sea Dogs defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs in the final of the Memorial Cup, the Canadian Hockey League year-end tournament.
“Accused” also has a Kevin Bacon connection to two Canadian stars who have graced Hamilton with their presence in recenct years. Its executive producers include Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, who were also behind “24,” the FOX Network’s long-running crime drama.
Kiefer Sutherland, who played “24” lead Jack Bauer, was here for production of his new TV series “Rabbit Hole” this summer. Elisha Cuthbert, who played Sutherland’s TV daughter Kim Bauer before going on to star in the early-2010s cult-favourite hangout comedy “Happy Endings,” was also in Hamilton for a shoot in the mid-2010s.
One of Cuthbert’s scenes in the 2017 Jay Baruchel-directed hockey comedy “Goon: Last of the Enforcers” was filmed inside of the venerable Corktown Irish Pub on Young St.
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