The movies They are a-Filmin'
Local scene is slowly gearing up, starting with Bob Dylan biopic.

BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette
Published: Monday, June 26, 2006


Thanks to an ongoing fight between two rival film-technician unions and a rapidly rising Canadian dollar, it has not exactly been a boom year for Hollywood film shoots in town. Still, things are picking up slowly but surely, with one major American flick set to begin shooting this week and two more on the way.

The most exciting news by far is the confirmation that hugely talented writer-director Todd Haynes's much-buzzed-about off-beat Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There is indeed going to be shot here this summer. Haynes - whose previous films include the unforgettable Iggy Pop-and-David Bowie-inspired Velvet Goldmine and the award-winning melodrama Far from Heaven - is already in Montreal preparing the production, which will begin shooting July 31 and continue production in Montreal and the surrounding area until Oct. 10.

The cast alone makes this flick one of the more exciting projects shooting anywhere in the world this summer. Real-life couple and Brokeback Mountain co-stars Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams are on their way here to act in I'm Not There, alongside Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Julianne Moore and French thespian Charlotte Gainsbourg. With the exception of Moore, Gainsbourg and Williams, all of these actors are playing characters inspired by Dylan's life.

The film is being produced by Christine Vachon, head of New York-based indie outfit Killer Films, and Jeff Rosen, Dylan's business manager. Though the film will showcase loads of Dylan tunes, the legendary singer-songwriter is not expected in Montreal for the shoot.

Shooting begins today on Journey to the Center of the Earth, a loose adaptation of the Jules Verne classic starring Brendan Fraser (The Mummy movies), Icelandic actress Anita Briem, and 13-year-old Kentucky-born actor Josh Hutcherson (RV, Kicking & Screaming). The co-venture between Walden Media (Chronicles of Narnia) and New Line Cinema (Lord of the Rings) is produced by Charlotte Huggins and Beau Flynn, and directed by Eric Brevig, who was the visual effects supervisor on Signs and Pearl Harbor.

The Journey to the Center of the Earth update is being shot in high-definition using the latest 3D technology and it is billed as an adventure in which the main characters come face-to-face with astonishing creatures below the surface of the Earth.

Offices are also open and pre-production is going full-blast on The Spiderwick Chronicles, a $110 million Paramount film based on the bestselling kids books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black about three youngsters caught up in a magical world. That one, the biggest production in town this year thus far, will go before the cameras in September.

Busy local production house Muse Entertainment - which is working with Killer Films to help make I'm Not There - begins production today on the $9.6 million miniseries Killer Wave, a drama about monster tidal waves on the Atlantic coast that are caused by terrorists. Seasoned Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald (Hardcore Logo) is directing and the cast is headed by Glasgow-born Angus Macfadyen (Alias and the upcoming Saw III), Quebecoise vedette Karine Vanasse (Seraphin, Emporte-moi), and Tom Skerritt (Picket Fences). The characters played by Macfadyen and Vanasse have three hours to save Boston from a killer wave.

Muse has another disaster movie on the way - Superstorm, about, as the title implies, a monster storm. Muse is producing this movie for the BBC and it begins shooting in mid-July.

It is a big year for disaster movies for Muse. The Montreal company is currently in post-production on The Flood, a British-Canadian-South African co-production that shot recently in South Africa and England. It stars the great Scottish actor Robert Carlyle, who was here last summer to star in the Muse-produced miniseries Human Trafficking, and former Montrealer Jessalyn Gilsig (Boston Public, Nip/Tuck). The film is about what happens when the Thames overflows and threatens to flood all of London.

At the end of July, Muse will begin production on the tentatively titled Durham County, a six-episode drama set to air on The Movie Network. It is a dark, edgy series about a serial killer who lives right next door to the cop who's investigating him.


© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006