Remarkably Bright Creatures — the cinematic adaptation of the beloved 2022 novel by Shelby Van Pelt — is a story that’s warm and comforting, like curling up under a well-worn blanket. This is largely because of its lush, evocative locations. The film revolves around the improbable relationships between a widow named Tova (Sally Field), a soul searcher named Cameron (Lewis Pullman), and a wry octopus named Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina).
Set in the misty, moody waterfront town of Sowell Bay, the Olivia Newman–directed film immerses viewers in a world that’s as emotionally moving as it is visually enchanting.
So is the town of Sowell Bay a real place? Did the crew shoot in the depths of the ocean? And was Marcellus actually filmed inside a tank? Read on to find out.
Although the rainy Pacific Northwest vistas were supposed to be along the Puget Sound in Washington, Remarkably Bright Creatures was filmed in Vancouver, Canada. The Sowell Bay scenes were filmed in the city’s Deep Cove neighborhood. “When we decided to look for our town, we found that Deep Cove was a really good fit,” says production designer Jennifer Morden.
For some scenes, yes. Certain setups were filmed at the Vancouver Aquarium, where the giant Pacific octopus Agnetha, who served as the visual inspiration for Marcellus, resides. “The aquarium has been quite the journey. Our exterior aquarium is [Deep Cove’s] yacht club, and we’ve married that with the Vancouver Aquarium for some of our larger tank scenes,” says Morden. “Where we needed a little more flexibility around shooting times or layout — we built that portion [as a set].”
Before Marcellus was created with VFX animation, visual effects supervisor Chris Ritvo spent hours with two real octopuses — Brando and Agnetha — at the Vancouver aquarium. “Agnetha was quite shy and hid for most of the visit. She came out right at the end, which was amazing,” Ritvo says. “But Brando came out as if he was auditioning for something — in full spectacle, swimming back and forth in this giant tank. And he was huge. He was 12-feet long!”
For filming the production team built a tank based on Agnetha’s. “Our department actually hired a tank builder — they built it all onstage. It was a real tank with real water,” says Ritvo. “We wanted to ground everything in reality. So we wanted to have a physical tank. We wanted to have water in it so that when Tova reached down and touched the water, it gave us something.”
Sure were! To capture Marcellus’s home in the sea with depth and authenticity, the production team actually took a camera underwater. “At the beginning and end of the film, there are scenes in the open ocean, and we actually went out to Vancouver Island and shot with divers so that we’d always have a home base for Marcellus in a physical place,” says Ritvo. “We were doing this right around this thing called the algae bloom. Apparently, when that happens, the visibility goes down to almost nothing. So we had basically one weekend to get a really clear day — we shot at two locations. There was a lot of mist and murkiness, but it gave us those beautiful light shafts that we could work with.”
