“This show strikes me as a cross between Twin Peaks and The X Files. What is it about Vancouver that is so creepy?” — moderator Shawn Ryan.
At the Bates Motel evening last Friday night at the Paley Center — Reimagining a Cinema Icon – showrunner Carlton Cuse joked about how they’d “ripped off Twin Peaks” almost as much as the classic Alfred Hitchock horror film Psycho. They did it by relocating to a Twin Peaks setting in the Pacific Northwest from the California one of Psycho but then offset that by building a spitting image replica of the movie’s 12-room motel and gothic house out in Aldergrove. Producers said they strived for a “cinematic” quality and wanted the landscapes to be “beautiful” in contrast to the dark subject matter.
Related: Bates Motel set in Aldergrove is the Spitting Image of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
Cast Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates), Freddie Highmore (her teen son Norman Bates), Max Thieriot (his half-brother Dylan), Nicola Peltz (popular high school girl Bradley), Nestor Carbonell (sinister Sheriff Romero) and creators Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin talked about the parallels and differences between the series Bates Motel and the iconic 1960 film. Farmiga admitted being worried at first about doing a homage to a classic film but the script won her over. “Do you know how rare it is to read a script with a complex leading female character?”. Freddie Highmore, meanwhile, adopted some of Anthony Perkin’s mannerisms but felt free to make Norman his own character. Both try to play the obsessive mother-and-son relationship as naturally as possible.
- Nestor Carbonell, Nicola Peltz, Max Thieriot, Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin, Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga & Moderator Shawn Ryan @2013 Paley Center for Media
Teased about the fate of beautiful young blondes in Hitchcock films, Nicola Peltz said she hopes not to be killed. Bates Motel airs its penultimate episode of season one tonight on A&E. And production on season two is expected to start this July in Vancouver. There is even talk of building an actual roof on the gothic house in Aldergrove instead of CGIing one on.
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