Manitoba film scene set to spring into action

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This article was published 29/01/2024 (971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba film industry is quite literally getting back in action this spring with a major studio movie scheduled to go to camera with an Oscar-winning actor in the lead.

Ke Huy Quan made a sweet return to the big screen in 2022, culminating in his win for supporting actor at the Oscars last year for his work in the action fantasy Everything Everywhere All at Once in which he starred opposite Michelle Yeoh.

As a child actor, Quan played “Short Round” in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and also starred in the ’80s juvenile classic The Goonies.

Quan will be taking the lead in With Love as a realtor whose secret past comes back to haunt him with the reappearance of an old lover.

Contrary to the title and plot description, the film, made for Universal Pictures, promises to be action-packed. It will be produced by 87North, the company that gave us the John Wick franchise. 87North also produced the action-thrillers Nobody (starring Bob Odenkirk) and the Violent Night (in which David Harbour plays an unsaintly Saint Nick) in Winnipeg.

The film’s designated director is Jonathan Eusebio, a second-unit director on Violent Night and a stunt/fight co-ordinator on a truly impressive list of films, including Black Panther, John Wick and Birds of Prey.

The shoot is scheduled to begin in April and shoot through mid-May.

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Director Nick Cassavetes, who helmed the heavy dramatic weepers The Notebook and My Sister’s Keeper, is apparently trying out a whole new thing with Bruno Penguin and the Staten Island Princess.

Like John Carpenter’s genre classic The Thing, it’s about a group of researchers trapped in a remote Antarctic facility. During a six-month season of total darkness, the researchers start to turn on each other, and must discover if the cause is psychological or something more sinister.

The shoot on that film is scheduled to commence in February and run to early April.

“We’re very excited to have the film in Winnipeg,” says Kenny Boyce, manager of film and special events for the City of Winnipeg.

“The locations are dynamic and I am hoping we still have lots of snow to make our visiting guests happy. It’s been a wonderful negotiation along with Manitoba Film and Music to have them here.”

Although Cassavetes has made deep impact at the helm of a few notable Hollywood films, he also has some renown as the product of Hollywood royalty; he’s the son of the late actor-filmmaker John Cassavetes and legendary actor Gena Rowlands.

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Picture-wrapped as of last week is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a holiday movie set for release later this year.

Directed by Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen), it stars Arrested Development’s Judy Greer and standup comedian Pete Holmes (Crashing) as husband-and-wife Christmas pageant directors confounded by a family of disruptive kids intent on taking over a Christmas pageant. It was adapted from the book of the same name by Barbara Robinson.

The film represents a return to Winnipeg from production company Kingdom Story Company, which brought the film Ordinary Angels to the province in 2022.

That film, which stars Hilary Swank and Alan Ritchson (Reacher), is scheduled for release next month. Both Pageant and Ordinary Angels will be distributed by Lionsgate.

randall.king.arts@gmail.com