Contemporary Psycho prequel series Bates Motel is back filming on its spooky Psycho replica motel and house set in Aldergrove today, a motel that officially opens for business on March 18th.
A&E announced the premiere date last Friday ahead of a Bates Motel-themed luncheon and panel at the Winter Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena. The 10-episode serialized season, which wraps filming in Vancouver late this month, is a present-day reimagining of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock horror classic Psycho not a homage, showrunner Carleton Cuse told critics. This psychological thriller focuses on Freddie Highmore’s teenage version of future serial killer Norman Bates. living in present-day White Pine Bay, Oregon, and explores the dark backstory of his relationship with his unhinged mother, Vera Farmiga’s Norma Bates, as he approaches his evil destiny. Or “How I Stuffed My Mother”, as Daniel Fienberg from HitFix.com reportedly joked in the session.
Freddie Highmore, pictured filming in Horseshoe Bay below, told critics that the series will prompt a debate about what makes him a future serial killer. Is it the Twin Peaks-like town of White Pine Bay they move to? Or is it the twisted relationship with his mother? In other words, nature or nuture?
Vera Farmiga, who I have yet to spot filming on location here, characterized the mother Norma as a “train wreck” to critics. Max Thieriot, photographed filming with Highmore in Horseshoe Bay below, is Norman’s older brother Dylan, and Olivia Cooke and Nicola Peltz (the new Transformers babe) are his schoolmates.
Nestor Carbonell and Mike Vogel, photographed filming in Steveston below, co-star as the town sheriff and deputy-sheriff.
Check-in for Bates Motel at 10 p.m. on Monday, March 18th, on A&E.
