t's
all in a day's work. There was David Arquette frolicking on a
Vancouver beach on a recent sunny afternoon attracting crowds and goofing
around on the set of the comedy See Spot Run. The city is becoming
a second home to Arquette who also starred in 3000 Miles to Graceland,
another Vancouver-lensed movie that wrapped in late June. The casino heist
flick is set in Las Vegas, circa the 1950s, and stars Kurt
Russell,
Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak and
Arquette's wife, Courteney Cox-Arquette.The couple were spotted nuzzling around town at trendy eateries and watering holes. Russell was conspicuous on set with his Elvis hairdo, black flares and bolero jacket but otherwise kept a low profile.
Not so with Kate Capshaw and hubby Steven Spielberg. Capshaw, who's starring in It's A Girl Thing, a four-hour mini-series featuring Mia Farrow, Elle Macpherson, Linda Hamilton and Stockard Channing, was joined for several days by Spielberg and eight-year-old son Sawyer. The couple have seven children between them. The trio did the town, visiting the Aquarium, the Science Centre, the upscale French restaurant Le Crocodile and even McDonald's with nary an autograph hound or a pesky fan in sight. They were so thrilled by the lack of attention they're considering coming up for a vacation soon with the rest of their brood.
There's Hollywood royalty and then there's the real thing. Prince Edward visited the set of Once Upon A Christmas,
Hold the brown M&Ms, Jack Nicholson's in town. It seems the star of the Sean Penn-directed flick, The Pledge, regaled local crews and actors with a stream of
dumb
blond jokes now that he's dating raven-haired Lara
Flynn Boyle. He may not be royalty
but stardom has its perks.To the amazement of many, Nicholson brought his own personal chef and a luxurious trailer along for the shoot.
The Farrelly Brothers (There's Something About Mary, Me, Myself & Irene) wrapped their latest flick, Say It Isn't So, with a wrap party at Playland, Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition amusement park. The producers shot most of the film at the nearby PNE Forum. Heather Graham (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Boogie Nights) may have just broken up with boyfriend director/actor Ed Burns but she and co-star Eddie Cibrian had a blast anyway at the Drop Zone, a bungee jump site.
Simon Fraser University high atop Burnaby Mountain in the Vancouver
suburb of Burnaby is suing Arnold Schwarzenegger and the producers of the futuristic flick Sixth Day for $100,000. The university alleges the production
didn't repair damage done to the campus after shooting action scenes.
- Valerie Gregory
lans to use
Calgary as the setting for the feature film The Rise and Fall of Jesse
James may have fallen through but meanwhile things are looking up for
local production on the futuristic thriller, Do or Die. And if
producer Gale Ann Hurd, recognized for her work on Terminator
and Armageddon, gives Calgary the green light, shooting in and
around the city should begin in late August. Early rumors pegged Arnold
Schwarzenegger as the film's star.Two projects that have been confirmed to start production the first week of August are Almost America, a feature film set in the '50s about an Italian family who moves to Canada for a better life, and Rat Race, a take-off on It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World.
And speaking of another production without western wranglers, Anthrax, a feature film concerning biological warfare, is using Calgary as its backdrop. The independent film, produced by Bruce Harvey, stars Cameron Daddo, best known for his lead role in FX, David Keith, from U-571, and Joanna Cassidy, whose credits include Blade Runner and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Calgary band Zuckerbaby will also get some screen time.
Rumors have been confirmed that Gabriel Byrne will be in Calgary to star as the lead in the Canadian feature titled Wild Geese, a homesteading movie set in the 1920s and shooting on the old Lonesome Dove set. Wonder if Byrne will be picking up his cowboy boots at The Alberta Boot Company, like Mark Harmon, Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu did. - Karen Ashbee
he stars
fell in Nova Scotia this past summer with four movie projects filmed here.
One of the most high-profile projects was the independent production Scotland
P.A. It attracted many of Hollywood's biggest stars including Ally 
McBeal's
James Le Gros (Psycho, Enemy of the State), E.R.'s
Maura Tierney (Primary Colors, Liar,
Liar), Academy Award winning actor Christopher Walken (Sleepy
Hollow, The Deer Hunter), Andy Dick (Road Trip, Being
John Malkovich) and a list of supporting actors such as Kevin
Corrigan (Slums of Beverly Hills), Amy Smart (TV's Felicity)
and James Rebhorn (The Talented Mr. Ripley).A dark comedic adaptation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy Macbeth, Scotland P.A. is set in small town Pennsylvania in 1973. The six-week production wrapped near Halifax at the end of June and producers expect the movie to be ready for release by next summer.
Caught on the set during a break in filming, Dick (also known for the television sitcom News Radio) had glowing praise for Nova Scotia. "I love it," he said, pointing out he had previously been to Vancouver and Toronto, but never the east coast. But despite his appreciation for the neighborhood, the quick-witted comedian was anxious to return to L.A. where a long list of projects awaited him.
Early summer also saw another of Hollywood's top stars working in Nova Scotia as Disney filmed Bailey's Mistake, to be seen on television this fall. Among the cast was veteran British actress Joan Plowright (Dinosaur, 101 Dalmations),
Richard
Burgi (Payback), and child actors Jesse
James (Message in a Bottle, As Good As It Gets)
and Paz de la Huerta (The Cider House Rules).Leading the cast is Linda Hamilton (both Terminator movies, Dante's Peak). In an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview, Hamilton described Bailey's Mistake as a "family movie. Something you could watch with your children." While full of praise for the "mystical comedy" which wrapped in early July, Hamilton was looking toward the future, but she admitted she had no definite plans.
"They are talking about a Terminator 3. I have no idea whether I'll be involved or not. I have read a script and we are talking, but I can't tell you at all which way it will go. It really depends on if they grow the movie. I wouldn't be interested in playing her (Sara Connors) exactly as when we saw her last. The whole point of the first two movies was that there was such a huge character arc and it's diminished returns to go and do that again. At a certain point, it sort of becomes cartoon-like. Unless Jim (ex-husband James Cameron) is writing, directing, producing or involved in some way I have a feeling it's just not going to be worth doing for me."
As to her future then, Hamilton held great hope for Bailey's Mistake. "It's a richly
layered story with all kinds of complex parts and all sorts of mystical things, but it's not light weight and sentimental." She thinks people will see her differently after this project. "It's a comedy," she stressed, adding that's the direction she'd like to see her career move. - Vernon Oickle