Finances hold back 2 high-profile Nunavut film shoots
Two feature movies to be shot in Nunavut this year, including the
directorial debut by British actor Ralph Fiennes, are on hold in part
because they still need funding.
Filming of Fiennes' Snow Country has not started due to a combination of
logistical and financial reasons, casting director Deirdre Bowen told
CBC News.
"It had to do with Ralph's availability, plus the final piece of
financing coming through, and the weather," Bowen said.
One year ago this month, Fiennes was in Nunavut to scout for locations
and find a lead actress for Snow Country, a love story involving a young
Inuk woman returning to the Arctic from a Winnipeg convent in the 1950s.
Bowen said Fiennes did met with several actresses following a territory-wide
casting call.
Another filmmaker, Andy Young, also visited Nunavut last spring in
search of a lead actress for Julie of the Wolves, his movie adaptation
of the 1972 children's novel by Jean Craighead George.
At the time, Young was adamant about finding a young Inuk or Inupiat
woman to portray Julie, the lead character. But now, Young said he's in
discussions with a non-Inuk to play the role.
"We didn't find the person that we felt was going to breathe the right
kind of feeling into the story," Young said.
"We also had resistance from would-be investors to using a first-time
actress on a film that completely had to be carried by that person."
Young said he still plans to shoot some of his movie's scenes in Nunavut.
But with no roads joining the territory to southern Canada, he said he
will likely shoot most of Julie of the Wolves in Alaska.
He added he was not enticed by Nunavut's limited financial incentives
for filmmakers from outside the territory.
April 18, 2007 (from CBC.ca)
Fiennes launches Nunavut search for Inuk leading lady
British actor Ralph Fiennes arrived in Nunavut this week to start his
search for an Inuk woman to star in his first feature film.
Fiennes, best known for his Oscar-nominated performances in front of the
cameras in The English Patient and Schindler's List, is making his
directing debut with Snow Country.
The film, based on an original screenplay, is a love story set in the
1950s involving a young Inuk woman who returns to the Arctic from a
Winnipeg convent, having lost her original language and cultural
identity. Pre-production work has begun and Fiennes and his crew hope to
start shooting parts of the film this fall or next spring near Rankin
Inlet.
Stopping in Iqaluit on Tuesday en route to Igloolik, Fiennes told
reporters that he's looking across the territory for an Inuk to play
Alma, the lead character.
"She's 17, 18 [years old] in the story, but she could be played by
someone a bit older," he said. "It's a question of, obviously, how they
look, what their qualities [are]. So I'm really open."
Fiennes noted that while the aspiring actresses don't need to have a lot
of acting experience, he cautioned candidates that the role is
demanding.
"It will be a big commitment for whoever plays Alma because it would be
a 10-week photographic period, principal photography," he said. "So it's
a big commitment because it's the leading part, the leading lady in the
film. It's in virtually every scene of the film."
In his search across Nunavut, Fiennes has teamed up with the Ajjiit
Nunavut Media Association, which will begin an official pre-casting call
for Alma with a booth at the Nunavut Trade Show on May 3.
"We will have a video camera set up where young female Inuks can come
and do a brief video interview as sort of the pre-casting for Alma,"
Ajjiit executive director Charlotte DeWolff said.
Fiennes said those in other Nunavut communities can submit a photo or
video clip to Ajjiit Media's office in Iqaluit. The entries will be
screened there, with the best ones forwarded to Fiennes and his producer
in preparation for an actual casting call.
Fiennes said he is also in the process of finding a well-known male
actor to play the film's romantic lead.
April 10, 2006 (from CBC News)
Rankin tapped to host Hollywood film shoot
Rankin Inlet has beat out Churchill as the location for a possible
feature film.
British actor Ralph Fiennes was in the Kivalliq community on Friday,
scouting out locations for the love story Snow Country.
"You know, at first Churchill, ... we were trying to make that work, but
it was clear that Rankin would be much, much better for the purposes of
this story," says Nicky Rohl, the film's script writer.
Snow Country would be Fiennes's debut as a director. However, the
project is still in the preliminary stages.
The movie is a love story between an Inuk girl and a white man, set in
the 1950s. The plan is to film in Winnipeg and Rankin Inlet next April.
Rohl says he was interested in Chesterfield Inlet as well but won't have
time to visit the area on this trip.
However if the film goes ahead, local filmmakers will work on the
project. They are on the lookout for a young Inuk to play the lead role.
September 30, 2005 (from Daily Mail)
Fiennes opts for the director's cut
By BAZ BAMIGBOYE
Ralph Fiennes is to make his screen directorial debut. In a sense, he's
following in the footsteps of his sisters, Martha and Sophie, both of
whom are noted film-makers.
He intends to begin filming the movie Snow Country on locations in
Canada in 2007.
The star was persuaded to work behind the camera by Simon Channing-Williams,
the producer of Fiennes's forthcoming film The Constant Gardener, which
is based on John le Carre's novel.
It will open the Times bfi London Film Festival on October 19.
Fiennes and leading lady Rachel Weisz are likely to garner Oscar
nominations for their roles.
Snow Country will be based on an original script by Nicholas Rohl. It's
about a 17-year-old Inuit girl in a convent in northern Canada.
However, Fiennes has much to do in other quarters before he can turn his
attention full time to the film.
In the new year, he will lead Jonathan Kent's production of Brian
Friel's play Faith Healer, which runs at Dublin's Gate Theatre and at
the Booth in New York.
It's rumoured that Cherry Jones, a much-acclaimed American actress, will
join Fiennes on Broadway.
Also, Ian McDiarmid is hoping to repeat the extraordinary performance he
gave in the play when it ran at the Almeida threeanda-half years ago.
The play's producers, Sonia Friedman and Michael Colgan, are surely
hoping Faith Healer will move to London but, sadly, there's no chance of
that happening.
The rest of this year is already mapped out for Fiennes. He films
Bernard And Doris with Susan Sarandon and then he'll be around for the
openings of The Constant Gardener, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
and the Merchant Ivory film The White Countess - another potential Oscar
contender.
It was Ismail Merchant's last film.
He died in May and Fiennes will be among those paying tribute to him at
a memorial service planned for November 18 at the Curzon cinema in
Mayfair.
