While the valley hasn’t seen too many larger productions rolling into town in the last few filming seasons, that changed with the announcement last week the film The Last Rites of Ransom Pride will be filmed in the area.
The western, which features Scott Speedman, who came to attention of audiences in Underworld, as well as country singers Dwight Yoakam, and Kris Kristofferson, confirmed it would be shooting in Alberta.
Lizzy Caplan, who came to prominence in the horror
movie Cloverfield, will also star in the movie. She plays a woman
trying to transport the body of her lover, an outlaw gunfighter, home
to be buried.
According to the Alberta Film Commission website the
movie has been in preproduction since August 18, and began filming on
September 2. The schedule says they are to shoot for about four weeks.
According to a Calgary Herald report, the crews are
to film in the Badlands of Drumheller, Longview and the Currie Barracks
in Calgary. It will employ more than 100 crew members, 47 actors and
hundreds of extras.
Ray Telford, Economic Development officer, says the
crews keep coming back because of the location. This summer the Murdoch
Mysteries, a Canadian series airing on City TV shot in the valley in
August, and earlier this summer, a Quebec RV television show shot in
the area, and will feature Calgary and Drumheller in their first
episode.
Just last week a small independent troupe was in
Dooley’s Coulee, in the east end of the valley filming a short movie
set in Afghanistan.
The short, written by Jimmy Bustos, who also directs,
and Richard Hardy, who plays a Canadian Soldier, is about a recently
orphaned Afghan youth and a soldier alone in the desert. According to
Hardy the film is multi-layered and deals with prejudice. He says it
was originally written as a western, but came alive when they placed it
in a modern Afghan setting.
It was scenery that brought the crew out to the
valley. They were familiar with the location in the coulee, especially
the stark dead tree they chose to film near, from shooting there as
students. He adds still shots from Afghanistan a crew member took not
long ago; confirms the landscape is very fitting. Hardy says the film
will be no longer than 15 minutes and is designed to be shown at
festivals. Another venue is the Movieola Short Film Channel.
The last Rites of Ransom Pride is scheduled to shoot
for four weeks, however it is not known when they will be working in
the valley.
The film is co-produced by Calgary’s Nomadic
Pictures. The executive producer is Chad Oakes who has won a, Emmy for
Broke Trail, and a Daytime Emmy for the Incredible Mrs. Richie.
