Indianapolis was built in Winnipeg: The filming locations of American Hostage
American Hostage
In January 2026, crews replaced the LED streetlights on a corner of Winnipeg's Exchange District with warm incandescent bulbs. The difference was a half-century. The corner became downtown Indianapolis, 1977 – the city where Fred Heckman broadcast a 63-hour hostage crisis live on the radio and nobody could look away. American Hostage, starring Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi, filmed entirely in Winnipeg from November 2025 to February 2026.
It happened in real life. On February 8, 1977, a man named Tony Kiritsis walked out of a mortgage company's office in Indianapolis with a shotgun wired to the neck of the firm's executive, demanding to be interviewed live on the radio. For 63 hours, beloved WISH radio reporter Fred Heckman broadcast the standoff to the city. It is one of the most extraordinary true crime stories in American broadcasting history.
MGM+'s American Hostage chronicles Heckman's story – Jon Hamm as the Indianapolis radio reporter thrust directly into the centre of a dangerous life-or-death hostage crisis when Tony Kiritsis, played by Giovanni Ribisi, demands to be interviewed live on Heckman's popular radio news programme. The series is envisioned as an anthology focusing on a different hostage case each season.
The cast: Jon Hamm as Fred Heckman, Giovanni Ribisi as Tony Kiritsis, Mireille Enos as Barbara Heckman, William Jackson Harper as Ben Hairston and Kristoffer Polaha as Dick Hall. Jonathan Tucker and Kat Cunning join in recurring roles. Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers serve as co-showrunners. Adam Arkin directed the first four episodes.
Principal photography ran from November 3, 2025 to February 5, 2026, entirely in Winnipeg and the surrounding area, under the working title Shortwave. The production used historic locations across Winnipeg's Exchange District and downtown core to recreate the Indianapolis of 1977.
In January 2026, crews spent a full day transforming a corner of Winnipeg's Exchange District into downtown Indianapolis. The Exchange District – Winnipeg's remarkably intact warehouse and commercial district from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose terracotta facades and older street infrastructure have made it one of Canada's most valuable period filming environments – was dressed for the 1970s. Production went to extraordinary lengths: the harsh modern LED streetlights were replaced with warm incandescent bulbs to recreate the specific quality of 1970s urban light.
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The Millennium Centre – a 1912 former Bank of Commerce building at 389 Main Street – was used during production. The Edwardian banking hall's grand interior spaces, its marble floors, its classical columns and its ornate architectural detail make it one of Winnipeg's most sought-after filming locations, used across every genre that passes through the city.
The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg was used to film the radio station WIBC/1070 – the Indianapolis station from which Fred Heckman broadcast the Kiritsis standoff to thousands of listeners across the city. The Theatre Centre's stage areas, its technical infrastructure and its adaptable interior spaces were transformed into the broadcast environment of a 1970s AM radio station.
American Hostage premieres on MGM+ in fall 2026.
SOURCE
Hollywood North Buzz // MGM+ // Winnipeg Free Press // Instagram
CREDITS
© Sony Pictures Television // Photo Steven Ackerman
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