Stephen King adaptation, Nobody sequel among films shooting in Winnipeg this summer

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This article was published 28/05/2024 (491 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A feature film adaptation of a Stephen King story and a sequel to a locally made action hit are on the slate for production in Manitoba this summer.

The Long Walk, a story technically penned under King’s nom de plume Richard Bachman, will be produced by Lionsgate and is scheduled to shoot between May and August.

No cast has been announced, but the dystopian tale of 100 teens (seemingly lowered to 50 for the film) participating in a deadly forced march/competition should be in the wheelhouse of director Francis Lawrence, whose work includes several chapters of The Hunger Games franchise.

In fact, King’s 1979 novel is considered one of the likely inspirations of author Suzanne Collins’ YA series, upon which that film franchise is based.

Over the years, heavy-hitting directors including Frank Darabont and George Romero have been attached to the story, without getting to the starting gate.

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Also on the Manitoba slate is Nobody 2, the sequel to the 2021 action film starring Bob Odenkirk as a suburban family man who reverts to his deadly past when his family is threatened by Russian mobsters. The film made US$57.5 million on a $16 million budget and was a top-rated movie when it came to Netflix in December of 2023, scoring nearly seven million views in its first week.

Director Ilya Naishuller, producer Kelly McCormick and screenwriter Derek Kolstad (John Wick) from the first film are all expected to return. In fact, the film had been scheduled to go into production in 2023 but was delayed by the SAG/AFTRA strike.

The original film was shot in Winnipeg in the late fall of 2019. Director Naishuller told the Free Press in 2021 that Winnipeg gave him everything he needed.

“I don’t think this movie would be possible if we shot anywhere else.”

“We are very thankful to the fine town and the people of Winnipeg,” Naishuller said. “I don’t say that lightly. You know, at the end of the movies, they always say thank you to towns. Sometimes it’s because it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes you say it because you’re just saying it.

“But I don’t think this movie would be possible if we shot anywhere else,” he said. “Not the same degree of quality that we managed in your fine city.

“I loved the city and how we managed to have a good time there while we were making this movie. It was very important for me.”

Nobody 2 should commence shooting in the coming weeks. Many of the action crew from 87North who worked on the recently wrapped Ke Huy Kwan movie With Love are expected to stay to work on Nobody 2.

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Another acclaimed Russian director, Egor Abramenko, will be coming to town to helm a film for the hot indie company A24, which has created a prestigious line of horror films including The Witch, Hereditary and Midsommar. This will be A24’s first Manitoba project.

Abramenko comes to the project, titled Altar, on the heels of his 2020 horror film Sputnik and his upcoming U.S. debut God’s Country, which will likely open in October.

Altar follows a 13-year-old boy who endures abuse at the hands of his sister’s ex-boyfriend, only to encounter a greater evil beneath the surface of the local pool, according the film news website The Cinemaholic.

“The best year in film production we’ve seen in ages.”

Winnipeg’s film and special events manager Kenny Boyce says the local industry will see “the best year in film production we’ve seen in ages.”

Boyce pointed to recent films enjoying accolades at Cannes — Matthew Rankin’s locally shot Universal Language and Rumours by Winnipeg triumvirate Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson — as indicators that the Manitoba industry is enjoying attention “that is truly international.”

Lynne Skromeda, CEO and film commissioner for Manitoba Film & Music, attended the festivities at Cannes and agrees the festival reflected well on locally produced film, especially since Rankin’s film won the inaugural audience award at the close of the fest.

“That’s a super big deal,” Skromeda says. “It’s like when (Guy Maddin’s) My Winnipeg came out (in 2007) and all of a sudden, everybody’s like, ‘What’s this Winnipeg I’m hearing about?’

“It puts us on a map in an entirely new way. I think there’s so much potential and interest.”

Skromeda says the upswing in local filming activity is particularly exciting after a post-pandemic lull over the past few years.

“One of the best things that could happen is if we continue to be busy right into the Christmas season and into the wintertime, because that’s typically a slower period,” she says.

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