Nobody puts Swayze in the corner

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This article was published 22/07/2005 (7654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THERE’S Dirty Dancing. And then there’s Seriously Delayed Dancing.

But finally, four years after Patrick Swayze shot a movie here in Winnipeg, the film One Last Dance will get released by Universal Canada on DVD on August 23.

It’s been a long time coming. Filmed over seven weeks beginning in March 2001, it was a personal project for the family Swayze, adapted from a theatre piece co-written by Swayze and his wife Lisa Niemi with some dancing choreographed by Swayze’s mom, Patsy. The film was shot at sites including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and the Walker Theatre.

Initially titled Dancing Without a Word, then Without a Word, the movie was directed by Niemi and co-starred George de la Pena.

Buffalo Gal Pictures producer Phyllis Laing, who acted as a line producer on the film, says Niemi and Swayze simply took their time finding the right venues for the film before finally releasing it.

Dirty Dancing star Swayze, who broke both his legs in a horse-riding accident on a film set in 1997, said at the time the dance scenes were especially arduous, and that our cold weather aggravated the titanium rod in his femur.

“It would have been nicer to have got this done when I was a little rubber person 12 years ago,” Swayze said prior to filming, adding that his personal regimen included “lots and lots of dancing, lots of anti-inflammatories, some voodoo worship, a lot of prayer, and Tiger Balm.”

“We’ve invested in the Advil company,” he said.

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Speaking of dancing, the three leads of the film Summer Babe — Molly Parker, Lukas Haas and Adam Scott (Six Feet Under) — have been doing “the mosquito dance” at Winnipeg Beach while shooting the low-budget independent film in the buggy Interlake for the past two weeks.

Brendon Sawatzky, producing the film with Corey Marr, says the trio have taken the hardships in stride, “swatting mosquitoes and banding together.”

Haas, perhaps best known for the role of an Amish boy he played opposite Harrison Ford in the film Witness, appears as Parker’s long-missing husband, who shows up at a Scott’s summer cottage five years after he disappeared. Former Winnipegger Wendy Crewson and R.H. Thomson (who recently wrapped his work on the Fred Durst horror film Population 436) also star as Scott’s bewildered parents.

Next week, Summer Babe pulls up stakes and moves to the Kenora area for its final two weeks, where presumably the actors will have to contend with mosquitoes plus blackflies.

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Want to win a double pass to the movie Stealth on Monday, July 25, at Silver City St. Vital?

For a shot, e-mail the answers to the following questions to randall.king@freepress.mb.ca before 10 a.m. today. Include your name (or the name of the person picking up the ticket) and daytime phone number. Winners will be notified by return e-mail and must be able to pick up their pass at the reception desk of the Free Press at 1355 Mountain Ave. by 5:15 p.m. tonight or between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. Monday.

1. Stealth star Jamie Foxx just won an Oscar this year for his work in the biopic Ray. In what film did he get a nomination in the supporting actor category?

2. Stealth star Josh Lucas also appeared as a scummy drug dealer in a film about the real-life “four-on-the-floor” murders in L.A. in which porn star John Holmes was implicated. Name that film.

3. Stealth star Jessica Biel recently starred in the remake of what classic ’70s horror movie?

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

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