News Updates
Let’s Get Rolling in Manitoba!
Posted on November 4, 2014
Article by Randall King from the Winnipeg Free Press
For the average Winnipegger, the big bump in film and television production this fall mostly manifests itself in puzzlement.
What are all these trailers doing parked on my street?
What's with those super-bright lights illuminating La Barrière Park?
Why does that man/woman in the hotel lobby look so familiar?
What's with the convergence of circus clowns and miniature horses in West Broadway?
Simply put, the answer is that Winnipeg had played host to five significant film/TV productions since August. Some of them have wrapped, and some are still ongoing.
The accumulation of shoots employed some 500 Manitobans working on sets and another 155 acting roles "with more to come," says OnScreen Manitoba executive director Nicole Matiation, who says the industry hasn't been this busy since 2006-07 when the Richard Gere-Jennifer Lopez movie Shall We Dance descended on the city.
The feature films are great, but it's the addition of long-haul TV series that help give stability to the film industry, Matiation says.
"When a series is shooting, it's great for the artists and talent because there's a lot of work around and the level of continuity you get is very important," she says.
To keep it all straight, here's a guide to what's been happening (and is still happening) in front of the cameras this fall.
Wait Till Helen Comes
What is it? This $10-million young-adult horror thriller is based on a bestselling book of the same name by Mary Downing Hahn.
Logline: A reconstructed family moves to a converted church in the country. Teen daughter Molly (Sophie Nélisse of The Book Thief) becomes concerned when her stepsister Heather (played by Sophie's real-life sister, Isabelle Nélisse of Mama) seems to fall under the spell of a spirit residing in the backyard cemetery, and has trouble convincing her parents (Maria Bello and Callum Keith Rennie) of the threat. The film is directed by Dominic James.
Where has it been shooting? A whole exterior of a church was built in La Barrière Park. Interiors, created by Winnipeg production designer Craig Sandells, are being shot in a cavernous warehouse/studio on Sherwin Road near the Red River College campus. Production will wrap in mid-November.
When can we see it? Producers say the film will ideally be in release for Halloween in 2015.
The Big Picture: It turns out Winnipeg in the fall is an ideal location for a scary movie, according to the film's two executive producers, Valérie d'Auteuil and André Rouleau, who are especially enamoured with locations such as the Cornish Library. "In this season, with the leaves falling, it looks just creepy enough for a ghost story," says d'Auteuil. "We found everything we were looking for and more. For this kind of project, it's been fantastic."
Borealis
What is it? Actor-screenwriter Jonas Chernick teams with director Sean Garrity (their past collaborations have included Inertia, Lucid and My Awkward Sexual Adventure) for a road movie with both comic and dramatic elements.
Logline: A father (Jonas Chernick) on the run from gambling debts takes a trip to Churchill with his daughter (Joey King of Oz, The Great and Powerful) so she can see the northern lights before she loses her sight, while a ruthless mob accountant (Kevin Pollak) is in hot pursuit.
Where has it been shooting? The film was shot all over the province in locations including Churchill, the South Beach Casino and the Assiniboine Park Zoo's new Journey to Churchill exhibit.
When can we see it? "We're aiming for the fall of 2015," says Chernick.
The Big Picture: "Sean and I are constantly batting ideas around," says Chernick of the story. "About five or six years ago, he pitched me this idea in three sentences. And it had an ending. And the last sentence made me cry.
"So I asked him: 'When are you going to write that one?' A few years went by and I finally said: 'Dude, can I take a stab at it?' And he said, 'Sure.' And it just took off from there."
Hyena Road
What is it? Writer-director-star Paul Gross, who portrayed the grim brutality of the First World War in Passchendaele, returns to the war-movie genre, Canadian style, with a story set in Afghanistan.
Logline: The lives of a mujahedeen fighter, a young Canadian soldier (Rossif Sutherland) and an intelligence officer (Paul Gross) intersect in a story written by Gross after he visited Canadian troops in Afghanistan in 2010.
Where has it been shooting? The bulk of the shooting has taken place at CFB Shilo. At the halfway point in its schedule, the film has wrapped its Manitoba shoot and has since decamped to Jordan.
When can we see it? Sometime in 2015, probably.
The Big Picture: It may seem a stretch to double Manitoba for Afghanistan, but the local production consisted of "mostly interiors, tactical operation centres and barracks," explains Gross. "But we also built a fairly large set as the forward operating base at Sperwan Ghar, and we built that in Shilo, but it has the benefit of high blast walls, so we don't actually see over it so we can see prairie and not Kandahar."
The Pinkertons
What is it? This 22-episode dramatic syndicated series is a novel meld of western and proto-police procedural depicting the casebook of the Pinkertons detective agency.
Logline: Allan Pinkerton (Angus Macfadyen) revolutionized the business of investigation, and his techniques are showcased in this drama starring Jacob Blair as his son and primary agent William Pinkerton and Martha MacIsaac as Kate Warne, the first female detective.
Where has it been shooting? If any location can pass as a 19th-century abode, such as Ralph Connor House on West Gate, it will likely be used by this series sooner or later. The most impressive location is the frontier town built adjacent to the Prairie Dog Central railway station in Grosse Isle.
When can we see it? The syndicated series is already being broadcast on WPIX, which is available on some bundled Shaw cable packages.
The Big Picture: "We did a lot of research," says Jacob Blair of the preparation for the series, which will maintain its intense shooting schedule in Manitoba until March. "Obviously, for me, it's worthwhile to put in 14-hour days for 22 episodes," he says. "We're in it for the long haul. And I wouldn't have it any other way."
Sunnyside
What is it? A six-episode TV sketch comedy for CityTV created by Dan Redican and Gary Pearson, stocked with some of Toronto's best and brightest comedy sketch players.
Logline: Based loosely on Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood on Queen Street West, Sunnyside is a portrait of a wacky community afflicted with, among other things, "feral ponies" and rogue clowns.
Where has it been shooting? To help create a sense of a real-life neighbourhood, shooting was mainly centred in Wolseley and West Broadway. That explains why storefronts for Wolseley fixtures such as Prairie Sky Books, Organic Planet and Humboldt's Legacy have been covered up with signage for fictional businesses such as "Alternate Reality" and "Dazed and Reused."
When can we see it? The series is scheduled to air on CityTV in January 2015.
The Big Picture: "Everything we've thrown at our crew here in Winnipeg, they've stood up and met with great aplomb," says executive producer Shane Corkery. "You want clowns? We've got clowns. You want ponies? We've got ponies. So it's kind of fantastic to see that."
It helps that Wolseley and West Broadway so closely mirror the Toronto locale that inspired it.
"It's a neighbourhood very much like this, where there's lots of gentrification, with yuppies coming in and living right next to the artists and the rough-around-the-edges characters and everyone finding a way of living in the same place," Corkery says.
