Not many Americans are familiar Parkwood Estate, a Canadian National Historic Site about an hour’s drive east of Toronto. The sprawling mansion was home to Samuel McLaughlin, a business magnate who founded General Motors of Canada and built the home and gardens in the town of Oshawa. Today, it’s open to the public, though its interiors and garden remain much the same as they were when McLaughlin lived in it in the 1930s. It’s also the site of a number of famous film and television shoots, including the original X-Men, Billy Madison, Warehouse 13 and The Ref. On the day Collider visited, a much different series is wrapping up principal photography:  Netflix’s new original series Hemlock Grove. Hit the jump to read our full set visit report.

The cast and crew of Hemlock Grove, the second offering in Netflix’s slate of original shows, was on hand this weekend to give a glimpse into the mysteries of the twisted town. The show, produced by Eli Roth and based on Brian McGreevy’s novel of the same name, puts a spin on the current trend of werewolves and vampires, replacing love triangles with body parts and unconsummated longing with raunchy, bloody sex.

The story picks up in the wake of a grisly murder.  The new boy in town Peter Rumancek, gypsy trailer trash and rumored werewolf, comes under suspicion for the crime. Peter finds an unlikely ally in Roman Godfrey, golden boy of the wealthy and influential Godfrey estate, Hemlock Grove’s resident wealthy philanthropists in the model of the Carnegies.  Together the pair attempts to solve the mystery of the murder before the killer can strike again. Staring Famke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Lili Taylor, Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, Freya Tingley, Kandyse McClure, and Aaron Douglas, Hemlock Grove premieres April 19^th on Netflix. Hit the jump for the full panel recap.

Some new images from the seventh season of Doctor Who are now available.  The new pics show off looks at stars Matt Smith as the titular character and his new companion, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman.  Guest starring in the upcoming season will be Dougray Scott, Warwick Davis, Celia Imrie, Richard E Grant, Jessica Raine, Tamzin Outhwaite, Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling.  Doctor Who premieres Saturday, March 30th, 8:00pm ET on BBC AMERICA, followed by the series premiere of Orphan Black and Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist as part of Supernatural Saturday.  Hit the jump to view the new images.

Netflix is kicking their original content into high gear this spring with the debuts of David Fincher’s political thriller series House of Cards, new episodes of Arrested Development, and a gothic thriller series called Hemlock Grove.  The latter comes from producer Eli Roth (who also directed the pilot), and a first trailer for Hemlock Grove has now been released online.  The show is based on Brian McGreevy’s novel of the same name and revolves around “the eccentric residents of a dilapidated former Pennsylvania steel town and the murder of 17-year-old Brooke Bluebell.  Through the investigation, the town’s seamier side is exposed, revealing that nothing is what it seems.”  The trailer looks like a cross between Grimm and Twin Peaks, with a touch of The Twilight Zone.  Color me intrigued.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The show stars Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, Freya Tingley, and Dougray Scott.  All 13 episodes will be available at once on Netflix on April 19th.

We have a couple minor casting stories for you this afternoon.  First up, Dougray Scott and Kara Tointon will lead Omid Nooshin’s low-budget thriller Last Passenger.  Per THR, the film tells “the story of a doctor who finds himself on a runaway commuter train.”  A runaway train is serious business and at the very least that doctor is going to be seriously inconvenienced.  The film is part of Pinewood Shepperton’s investment fund for low-budgeted movies.  With a budget slightly above £1.2 million ($2.5 million), Last Passenger will be co-financed by Future Film and the BFI Film Fund.  According to THR, “Pinewood Shepperton is aiming to back four films a year from first-timers, with a combined budget of around $13 million.”  Their first film is the Crispian Mills and Chris Hopewell “psycho-comedy” A Fantastic Fear of Everything starring Simon Pegg.

Hit the jump for casting news on the next film from Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo).

There Be Dragons manages to keep the most sympathetic character from carrying any emotional weight. When you try to form a historical epic set during the Spanish Civil War and you miss out on grounding the film with an emotional core, you risk losing your audience in the motions of film making; beautiful scenery, heavy drama, and an intriguing story. But those are the things that Roland Joffé’s film squanders more than anything else. Without emotion, all of the standard qualities form a hollow experience. Worse than that, those not well-versed in Opus Dei nor the Spanish Civil War may not get the full benefit of the experience because they will be left with many questions from the very beginning. Hit the jump for the full review.

We have a couple casting stories to report to you this morning.  First up, Angela Bassett has joined the cast of McG’s action-romantic-comedy This Means War.  The film centers on a couple of best friends/international spies (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) who wage black-ops warfare on each other when they both fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon).  According to Variety, “Bassett will play the boss to Pine and Hardy’s characters who has dedicated her entire life to the spy business and has no life outside the CIA.”  Bassett will next be seen in the wedding comedy Jumping the Broom on May 6th and as Amanda Waller in Green Lantern on June 17th.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding Dougray Scott signing on to star in the sports drama United.

We have the first teaser trailer for director Roland Joffe’s (The Killing Fields) upcoming epic, There Be Dragons.  The film tells the story of “two childhood friends who become separated during the political conflict to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts.”  Rodrigo Santoro, Olga Kurylenko, Derek Jacobi, Wes Bentley, Charlie Cox,  Dougray Scott, and Golshifteh Farahani star.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and to read a plot synopsis for the film.

Last May we reported that Irvine Welsh, author of the novel Trainspotting, would be writing and directing a British feature called The Magnificent Eleven. But hey! May was a lifetime ago so we figured we should remind you! In case that title didn’t give it away, the film is a modern-day take on the classic American western The Magnificent Seven, itself an homage to the Japanese classic The Seven Samurai. Welsh’s interpretation turns the cowboys into British footballers and the Mexican setting into a Tandoori take-out joint. Screen Daily is also reporting that Sean Bean and Dougray Scott will star in Eleven alongside Robert Vaughan – the last surviving member of the original Magnificent Seven. This casting scoop isn’t exactly breaking news but it may help Stealth Media Group as they shop the feature around the 60^th annual Berlin Film Festival this week.