The Assassination of Jesse James Casting Info

Thanks for all your support! The Alberta Movie Guide has been receiving a lot of hits and the numbers keep rising. Recently, a large portion of those hits are coming from people searching for casting information regarding the upcoming Scott Free Productions film The Assassination of Jesse James starring Brad Pitt. It's great to see interest in Alberta generated through the film production, even if it is partially because of the star and producers.

Please see the Production Credits section of the Alberta Film Commission website for casting inquiries.

2005 Dreamspeakers Film Festival

This weekend (June 22 to 25) is your chance to attend a unique film festival in Edmonton, Alberta. The Dreamspeakers Film Festival focuses on Aboriginal and Native documentaries, films, television shows, actors, directors, and producers. The event welcomes people of all cultures and will feature an incredible roster of talent from independent and high-budget Hollywood productions. Attendees also have the opportunity to participate in outstanding workshops led by industry professionals with topics ranging from Screenwriting to Acting and Filmmaking.

As a good friend of the Festival President, I can honestly say he has put his heart and soul into ensuring the Festival offers something for everyone and provides an excellent venue for storytellers to gather.

From the Dreamspeakers Film Festival website:

When the first Dene filmmaker returned home to Canada’s Northwest Territories, his people had no words for his new art. They called it Dreamtalking. When you make films a Dene elder said, you are speaking your dreams.

Over the course four days, Edmonton, Alberta becomes the site of an international gathering of our own Dreamtalkers: filmmakers, performers and artists. First Nation people from around the globe gather to share their common bond, a linkage with of a natural world whose harmonies and rhythms are being forgotten by those that came later.

Dreamspeakers Film Festival provides a venue for Dreamtalkers and offers a unique exploration into aboriginal cultures from all parts of the globe.

The Dreamspeakers Society supports, promotes and markets aboriginal culture, art and heritage. It is a resource for aboriginal filmmakers, for directors, scriptwriters, cameramen, technicians, actors, musicians, storytellers, artists and craftspeople. The Society is also a resource bank — a way to get in touch with aboriginal filmmakers, performers and artists. And through Dreamspeakers, aboriginal people receive training in arts, culture and festival operations.

Don't miss out on this annual showcase! Call Laurel at (780) 378-9609 to register and purchase tickets.

More Stars to Film in Alberta in 2005

Originally published as a fact box in the Edmonton Journal, June 22, 2005:

MORE STARS

Brad Pitt isn't the only Hollywood star headed to Alberta. Liam Neeson, Richard Gere, Robin Williams and Robert Duvall are working on four separate projects. Williams is starring in the big-budget comedy R.V., which will film in Alberta for five weeks starting mid-July. Duvall, who was last in Alberta to star in 2003's film Open Range, is expected to film a miniseries here this summer. Neeson and Gere will star in Seraphim Falls, a psychological action film rumoured to begin filming here in late summer.

Brad Pitt Coming Back To Alberta?

Brad Pitt as Tristan Ludlow in Legends of the Fall. © 1994 TriStar Pictures, Inc.

There's been rumblings about Brad Pitt filming in Alberta again for quite a while now. When I was conducting research for the print version of The Alberta Movie Guide a few years ago, locals in southern Alberta towns mentioned hearing about his return for a feature film production. It's been rumored that he's already visited Alberta several times in addition to filming Legends of the Fall and that he has property in Bragg Creek near Calgary, though he denies it saying if he owned land in all the places people said he did, he'd be "quite the land baron." A month ago, I heard the rumor resurface and was told that Pitt had recently made a visit to Alberta to scout locations including Fort Edmonton Park. Calgary and Edmonton media outlets have been buzzing with the news, but no official announcements have been made.

The Assassination of Jesse James, one of many flicks about the infamous outlaw, is to be directed by Chopper's Andrew Dominik and produced by Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free Productions.

If you've never been to Fort Edmonton Park, it's worth visiting not only for it's historic atmosphere, great location, and cultural history, but to see it up close before it appears on film again. I've had the good fortune to visit it many times during school and family outings, celebrate special occassions and film weddings there. I've even traveled down the North Saskatchewan River by canoe to stay overnight at Fort Edmonton, just as Hudson's Bay Company Fur Traders used to do many years ago. Fort Edmonton Park remains one of my favorite locations in the city. I'll have more on Fort Edmonton Park's role in films at a later date.

Note: Please don't send requests asking where Brad and other stars will be staying or what time they'll be at a certain place as I won't be providing that specific kind of information. The film production needs to run smoothly and though there'll probably be some kind of media photo opportunity if they do film here, the cast and crew don't need delays in work or hassles during the off-production hours. Just like you or I, they have a job to do. Perhaps serving as an extra on the film might be your shot at getting a glimpse of Mr. Pitt?

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Originally published in the Edmonton Journal, June 22, 2005:

Details of Pitt visit as elusive as James gang
Hot actor coming to Edmonton for film about Wild West outlaw

Rick McConnell
The Edmonton Journal
June 22, 2005

EDMONTON - Wanted: Information leading to some arresting details about the new Brad Pitt western coming to a city very near you.

The blond, heart-throb leading man will soon be back in Alberta to film his new Jesse James movie, which will be shot at historic Fort Edmonton Park and in the wide-open spaces outside Calgary.

Beyond that, there are few eyewitness reports about the $30-million drama. Reporters seeking tips about the movie and its big-name star followed a cold trail Tuesday.

"This is the best news a film commissioner can get," said Edmonton Film Commissioner Patti Tucker, who, as it turned out, couldn't offer an accurate description about who will do what to whom, or when, or how.

"I'm as frustrated as you are," Tucker said when asked to confirm the whole Brad-Pitt-is-coming-to-town story.

"We need to get this good news out, but it's got to come from (Alberta Film Commissioner) Dan Chugg. I can't say one word to anybody, and I've been working on this for three months."

Chugg, who oversees the province's film industry and reports to Economic Development Minister Clint Dunford, was out of the office and unavailable for comment.

Requests for information were passed to the department's communications branch, but no one from that office called back to confirm one of the biggest film projects to hit the province in years.

Still, despite efforts to keep word from leaking out, those tracking the story were able to learn that Plan B Films, a company started by Pitt and his estranged wife, Jennifer Aniston, will co-produce the movie, along with Scott Free Productions, owned by brothers Tony and Ridley Scott.

Pitt will play Jesse James, who was living under the alias Tom Howard in St. Joseph, Mo., when he was gunned down in his living room on April 3, 1882, by his cousin, Bob Ford, a former member of his gang.

The movie, based on the 1983 Ron Hansen novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, will be good news to Alberta's film industry.

But to the people who will one day market the movie, good news is apparently no news at all.

At Warner Bros. Pictures offices in Los Angeles, one publicist after another said, more or less, "they went thataway," and finally suggested information might be forthcoming from the company's Canadian headquarters in Toronto.

There, however, a harassed publicist was dealing with a power outage and had no time to talk. Hours later, the Toronto publicist called back and passed the bouncing ball back to another Warner spokesperson in Hollywood, who confirmed that Pitt and the Scotts are indeed involved, but wouldn't say much more.

Is there anyone from Warner Bros., the spokesperson was asked, who can talk about this project?

"No," the spokesperson said.

Could you tell us why that is?

"No," the spokesperson said. "If we put out a press release in which we announce this, then the head of production would make the announcement. When we put out a formal announcement, then it will come from the head of the studio."

Over at the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association offices, things seemed a little more certain.

"I understand there are quite a few locations around Alberta, not just Calgary and Edmonton," said executive director Alan Brooks. "It means a lot of work for a lot of people in this industry."

Brooks said he was told production officials involved with the project visited the Alberta capital months ago.

"They fell in love with Fort Edmonton Park," he said. "It was absolutely perfect for the movie."

"We have no information," said the person answering telephones at the park, who then suggested Patti Tucker might be the person to call.

With a posse of reporters still hot on the story's trail, by the end of the day the film's director had been identified as Andrew Dominik, who once wrote and directed a film called Chopper (2000), which starred an actor named Eric Bana, who later worked in a film called Troy, which starred a certain shy fellow named Pitt, who might remember Alberta from his work a decade ago on Legends of the Fall, which some people say was filmed here.

But that might be a rumour.

rmcconnell@thejournal.canwest.com

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The Calgary Sun also has a report on the 'Pitt-stop' at this link.

Wanted: An Edmonton film school

Back on March 24, Todd Babiak of The Edmonton Journal wrote the following article about Red Deer College's Motion Picture Arts Program and commented on the cinematic direction and training for Alberta's creative talent.

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Wanted: An Edmonton film School
Will Red Deer lead us to cinematic promised land?
by Todd Babiak - Originally published in The Edmonton Journal

In the Woody Allen movies of the 1970s, every character is writing a novel. In the real world of 2005, every character is making a Woody Allen movie. Or a Christopher Guest movie. Or a really embarrassing John Woo movie.

Not long ago, the motion-picture industry was an exotic cult that only accepted the ultra-rich, the ultra-lucky, the Ultra-beautiful and the extended family of Francis Ford Coppola. Thanks to the wonders of digital technology, a broadcast-quality camera and editing suite is now about the same price as two years of university tuition. Anyone can make a feature, and apparently they are; at a weekly rate, Edmontonians are directing, editing and releasing films into the local market, a market that barely exists.

This is good news, isn't it? We humans long to express ourselves, to share our stories, and we were constrained too long by the prohibitive economic realities of the movie industry. Independent film is on the same level as independent music and small-press publishing, with a libertarian, outlaw quality. Who needs Hollywood? We can rent the Garneau for a weekend!

The keyword here is "rent."

Technical expertise is suddenly available to everyone. What is less available, and rarer than a Whooping Crane, is the ability to conceive and tell a good story. We can cheer the efforts of young and aggressive local filmmakers. We can put their pictures in the newspaper. But no one can pass a lie detector test claiming that any of the locally produced features screened in Edmonton in the last few years approaches mediocre. Either they're mock documentaries filled with unfocused improvisation or they're loud, cliche-ridden messes masquerading as American genre films.

NAIT offers a two-year Radio and Television Arts diploma. The University of Alberta offers a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Media Studies. One of these programs produces all the gaffers and grips the province will ever need. The other graduates experts in narratology and la nouvelle vague francaise. Neither of these programs trains screenwriters or creative directors.

"Maybe our goal is to create a local pool of technicians," says U of A Film and Media Studies professor Jerry White.

"But an environment where people who are creative are encouraged to develop as artists? That's a different thing altogether. A BFA (bachelor of fine arts) in film production in Edmonton would help, depending on what you want, but the networks that allow people to get into the film industry, whether they have a degree in film or not, are very informal."

Making a good movie, a movie worth watching, is ridiculously difficult. Finding an audience for an English-Canadian film is even more difficult, as the faintly audible cricket sounds during Monday night's Genie Awards presentation demonstrated. Even in Toronto and Vancouver, the twin cities of Canadian film, there isn't a genuine opportunity for those informal networks to develop and thrive. After the Genies, professionals talked about how we just need one great Canadian film to capture the nation and the world, creating a measure of interest and activity. Since things can't get much worse, anywhere. Alberta is as good a place as any to develop and release that one great Canadian film. But greatness is unlikely when competence is scarce and making money is just about impossible.

"We've studied film programs across the country, to see what they've done wrong," says Don Armstrong, head of production at Red Deer College's Motion Picture Arts program, a two-year applied after-degree in production or performance.

"We're trying to produce entrepreneurs instead of employees, so we're taking them through pitch sessions and teaching them about the business and the art of film. If you want a job in the industry, you don't have to go to school.

What we're trying to do is help build an industry in Alberta by having students form companies and initiate professional projects."

The latest film to come out of Red Deer College, To The Victor, is nominated for three AMPIA (Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association) awards. The program's last collaborative feature, Naked Frailties, has been distributed around the world.

So far, film programs in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have been unable to create la nouvelle vague canadienne.

So far, universities in Edmonton and Calgary aren't bothering to try. There isn't much time left, as iMacs [Apple Computer] and editing software transform the art of film into little more than a hobby for the vain and the curious, tightening Hollywood's hold on the industry.

Come on, Red Deer.

Alberta Film Industry Grant Increase

In a move to be applauded, and following the recommendations of the Alberta Film Commission Advisory Council, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts has increased grant amounts available to the Alberta film industry. The move was implemented to help make Alberta even more attractive to movie-makers from around the world.

"These changes will help make it affordable for Alberta producers to stay in the province and make our artists more attractive to co-producing partners from around the world," said Gary Mar, Minister of Community Development.

You can get an idea of the numbers involved by reading the press release available on the Government of Alberta Website.

Welcome to The Alberta Movie Guide

Two things I really enjoy besides watching movies are reading about their making and visiting the locations they're filmed at. There's definitely something magical about walking on the same soil as Film Directors like Steven Spielberg or George Lucas and stars such as Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, and Jackie Chan. You start to think of moments from the films, and then, if you're like me, you try and figure out where the cameras were set up, what angles they shot, where the Directors were sitting, what the weather was like, and even what's changed since the production has left. As somebody with a film/video production background, I understand the enormous amount work that goes into making our favorite cinema adventures, including the care taken to choose suitable filming sites.

Filming on location is not an easy task. First, the production has to find locations that are within close proximity to major cities or towns in case they need to house the cast and crew, seek medical attention, send for supplies, or enlist the help of local extras. If the production requires several exterior locations, you want to locate them as close together as possible in order to minimize travel time between them. This helps to allow more daylight hours for filming and cast and crew downtime. In most cases, the Producers or Coordinators also have to acquire permits, obtain permission from landowners - and sometimes homeowners - ensure security for the cast, and finally (but not completely), have a backup indoor location for filming in case of weather delays. It can all be a very complex process, but in the end, if the locations are right, the credibility of the characters and story is increased.

The Alberta Movie Guide is an idea I dreamt up several years ago. My wife and I were fortunate enough to get married in Hawai'i and we had our honeymoon on the beautiful 'Garden Island' of Kaua'i. One of the reasons we chose Kaua'i was because of its use in many of the most successful (and favorite) blockbusters of all time. With the help of The Kaua'i Movie Book and a map marked with film locations, we set off to 'relive' some great movie moments. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Blue Hawaii, Honeymoon in Vegas, and Mighty Joe Young (1998) have all showcased the emerald green jungles, rugged coastlines, colorful blooms, relaxing beaches, and countless waterfalls of Kaua'i. Just as the movies had transported audiences, so too were we taken to the 'film worlds' by visiting many of these locations during our trip. It was an exciting adventure for both of us and though others had already paved the way, it didn't detract from our own fantastic journey.

Born and raised in Alberta, I have a lifetime fondness for the province's diverse scenery. Ranging from the breathtaking mountain peaks of Jasper and Banff, the ancient badlands of Drumheller and Dinosaur Provincial Park, to the otherworldly oil sands of the north, Alberta has provided the backdrop for fictional and historic film subjects. When you take into account the well-preserved structures of pioneering Forts and ranches, the golden waves of grain and yellow fields of Canola, and snow-packed peaks of Canmore and Kananaskis, Alberta has filled in for just about any piece of scenery required. Okay, so we don't have tropical, but there's always indoors for that if needed.


Unforgiven. © 1992 Warner Bros.

Not to be forgotten, Alberta is also fortunate enough to have a wealth of creative talent, many who have already contributed towards Hollywood hits like Unforgiven, Superman, Legends of the Fall, Rat Race, River of No Return, Shanghai Noon, The Edge, Days of Heaven, and Cool Runnings. That's just for starters. I haven't even discussed the many Canadian-made films.

Realizing the lack of a comprehensive news and location resource available to those inside and outside the Alberta filmmaking community, my goal was, and is, to help bring The Kaua'i Movie Book concept to Alberta. The Alberta Movie Guide (book currently in development) and this blog aren't intended to replace the efforts of the incredible Alberta Film Commission and other production resources, but rather to act as a complimentary source to bring reports, opinions, reviews, and location information to professionals and amateurs alike, helping them appreciate all that Alberta has to offer in film, television, and media production. It's truly a place I believe to be one of the best in the world, and an area I'm proud to call home.


Shanghai Noon. © 2000 Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. and Spyglass Entertainment Group, LP.

I'd like to add that as Albertans, we don't want to be looked at as 'the bad guys' in what's being labeled as 'runaway film production.' Along with our scenery, we're very proud of our production community and our collaboration with foreign film, television, and media productions. We're hardworking professionals, and like many North Americans, Europeans, and Asians, we have dreams of 'being in the movies.' It is our hope to continue to provide facilitation for all creative media productions.

I hope you'll enjoy the journey and I (and my collaborators) look forward to sharing Alberta's rich film and television history (and future) with all of you!

Note: Many locations are on private property and I will not be providing information on how to 'sneak into' these places. It is my intention to respect the production, the cast, crew, and landowners. If I do post any information on private locations, it will either be because the information has already been published, the landowner has given consent, or members of the Alberta film community have been allowed to share such knowledge.