Hollywood brings Christmas in July to Edmonton

Originally published in the Edmonton Journal, July 14, 2005
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Pine trees with fake snow work just fine for CBS TV movie

BILL RANKIN
Journal Culture Writer
EDMONTON

It's going to look a lot like Christmas around Edmonton over the next three weeks.

On Wednesday, a sequel to the popular 2002 CBS television movie The Christmas Shoes began shooting north of downtown.

The film, tentatively entitled The Christmas Blessing, stars Rob Lowe, late of The West Wing; Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser, M.D. fame, and scream queen Rebecca Gayheart. It wraps Aug. 8 after filming in various Edmonton locations including the General Hospital, two houses in Glenora, the McCauley school and throughout Old Strathcona.

Executive producer Beth Grossbard said The Christmas Blessing "is a small-town movie, and Edmonton has that small-town feel."

Grossbard also produced The Christmas Shoes, a tearjerker about a young boy trying to find the perfect shoes for his dying mother. It drew nearly 17 million American viewers and was the second-highest rated TV movie of 2003-04.

She said she found everything she needed for her sequel right here.

"We spent a couple of weeks scouting for the right locations, finding the right school that looked like a northeastern town building, a home that not only matched the Nova Scotia home (in the original film), but the neighbourhood in and around the home.

"The people at the General Hospital have been wonderful also. There's a wing that's empty there. It's perfect for shooting," she says. "You can't find that in a lot of towns where there's a totally shut-down wing of a hospital where you can go in, clean it up a little bit, put a little spit polish on it and you've got yourself a set."

Co-producer Craig Anderson chose Edmonton over Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg. He was looking for a feel that would harken back to the first movie.

He says financial and professional incentives also made the project most viable in Edmonton.

"I was looking for a small-town feel that wasn't Calgary, that wasn't Vancouver or Toronto. I wanted a crew that knew each other, that had been together for quite a while so there's a nice camaraderie there. I scouted in four different places, but I ended up with Edmonton because of the feel that I had here.

"There's a great crew here and I get a percentage back by hiring local. Not only casting and crew, but department heads are all local. About 95 per cent of the entire crew is from the area, which is just great."

By filming in Alberta, the production can draw on an available $1.5 million in provincial film development funding, and 50 percent of Alberta-based labour costs also get rebated.

After shooting The Christmas Blessing, Anderson will take a week off and then begin doing a second film here for Lifetime Television. That shoot will end in mid-September.

Patti Tucker, head of the Edmonton Film Commission, says luring the two productions to the dty will build on the reputation Edmonton is gaining as a film-friendly location.

"When you're dealing with CBS and Lifetime, it certainly raises the credibility of the city."

She estimates local financial spinoffs from the two productions to be worth $4 million.

Grossbard found Tucker's helpfulness a major incentive for working here.

"I think in a town that doesn't have an excessive amount of film production, people are more open to it. If you go into Vancouver or Toronto, they don't want you in their neighbourhoods. They're tired of it," she says.

"We're doing one of our biggest scenes this coming weekend in and around Old Strathcona. We were able to get cooperation from the film commission, and permits and the traffic control and the police. I can't say a lot of places would allow you to do that." The stretch of 83rd Avenue between 104th Street and Gateway Boulevard will be made to look like a town square for the movie.

Anderson will have to resort to some Hollywood magic make midsummer Edmonton look like December in the eastern U.S.

"We always make Christmas movies in July and August for some reason. I've done it before, so we'll be laying down snow, making people wear jackets and gloves and mufflers in order to give us the atmosphere."

He'll have to keep the leafy poplars out of the picture. "We shoot in front of pine trees," he says.

Meanwhile, Grossbard says in the month she's been living in Edmonton preparing for filming, there's only one question she's getting tired of answering.

"The only problem is everybody keeps saying to us, 'Oh, you're with the Brad Pitt movie.' Everybody wants to see the Brad Pitt movie."

Warner Brothers begins shooting a film about the American outlaw Jesse James, starring Pitt, at the end of August in Calgary. There are unconfirmed reports that some of the scenes will also be shot at Fort Edmonton Park.

brankin@thejournal.canwest.com