Veteran American film star Shirley MacLaine will travel to Southwestern Ontario this week to join the cast of a new Anne of Green Gables television movie.
MacLaine will play the wealthy and unpleasant widow Amelia Thomas, a minor figure in the original book by Lucy Maud Montgomery who has been developed into a central character for Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, set to air on CTV next year. The character is different from Amelia Evans, played by Canadian Jackie Burroughs in the original 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries on CBC. The new movie is a prequel to that previous project, which was one of the most popular television programs in Canadian history.
MacLaine will be shooting in Hamilton, Dundas, Ont., and Rockwood, Ont., this week and next, producer Sullivan Entertainment announced yesterday. The cast also includes Barbara Hershey as the adult Anne Shirley and Hannah Endicott-Douglas as the young one.