Brad For Business

Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Photo © Warner Bros Pictures. All rights reserved.

The Calgary Sun reported on how Brad Pitt affected Alberta cast and crew while shooting The Assasination of Jesse James:

“He was delightful,” one source says of Pitt. “He was professional and easygoing and very easy to work with.”

The source says that sentiment was echoed by others working on the project, noting everyone had “nothing but good things” to say about Pitt, before adding, “shockingly good things.”

The insider says they know of no blowups or any of the other incidents that can sometimes occur when you’re working long hours with people who, some might say, can afford to be less than gracious.

“You’re working all night long and he was just so accommodating to everybody,” the crew member says. “We worked nights in Edmonton until the sun came up and people were sure in good moods.”

The source says that extended to Jolie [Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith], who was a regular visitor on the set with her adopted children. The crew member says Jolie came up and introduced herself as “Angie” on the very first day.

“She was just super low-key but nice to everybody,” adding that “her kids would have playdates with some of the kid actors.”

The article goes on to talk about locations involved in the film and the Alberta film industry:

The Assassination began filming in southern Alberta in the McKinnon Flats area southwest of the city and subsequently filmed in Heritage Park, the Fairmont Palliser Hotel, the Kananaskis area and on several private ranches near Millarville, Turner Valley, Longview and Cochrane.

The production team recreated the town of Creed, Colorado near Goat Creek north of Canmore at the cost of $1 million. On Nov. 25, Ron Liepert, the MLA for Calgary West conducted a four-day visit to this set for himself and five other MLAs.

“It is the government’s desire to see the film industry become a $400-million-a-year industry in the province in the near future. We realize this means creating incentives that will bring more films like The Assassination of Jesse James to the province and that is one of our priorities,” says Liepert, who is the co-chairman of the Alberta Film Commission.

According to a Sun source close to the Jesse James production, it’s not just Alberta’s natural resources that are so attractive.

“It’s the expertise of the crews in the province that continue to impress producers like David Valdes, who also produced Unforgiven and Open Range,” says the source.

More than 250 local extras were used for a ballroom scene filmed in the Palliser Hotel.

They were chosen from the more than 3,000 who turned out for an extras casting call in August, the biggest turn-out for any movie filmed in the province. Calgary youngsters Dustin Bollinger, 7, and Brooklynn Proulx, 6, won the coveted roles of Jesse’s children, Tim and Mary James.

Full article at this link.
Photo courtesy of movies.about.com.