2 May 2009
Iron Road - Prize-Winning B.C. Home-Grown
Iron Road movie poster.
Vancouver British Columbia - The Pacific
Cinematheque is screening a five-day program of films drawn from this year's Leo award nominees for B.C. film and TV.
Many screenings will feature appearances by producers and directors talking about their films.
The screenings start today, and highlights include Iron Road, the Chinese-Canadian drama set amind the building of
the Canadian Pacific Railway starring Peter O'Toole, Sam Neil, Ian Tracey, and Tony Leung Ka-Fai.
Steam Onto Screen - Kamloops News 4 May 2007
Kamloops is riding the rail to the little screen.
In June, the Kamloops region will be the central focus of a CBC two-part miniseries and movie, booked to be aired in
2008.
The $10-million Chinese-Canadian co-production, titled Iron Road, will feature several local
areas and the historic 2141 steam-powered train.
Editor's Note: Locomotive 2141 is an ex-Canadian National Railways Consolidation type steam locomotive that is
NOT representative of Canadian Pacific steam locomotives of the period depicted in this movie.
Iron Road, written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey, is the first Canadian-Chinese co-production in 22
years.
The story, inspired by an opera by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell, is one of love and the construction of the railroad in the 1880s.
Actress Sun Li plays the part of Little Tiger, a street urchin dressed as a boy, who falls in love with a railroad tycoon's son,
James (Luke MacFarlane).
Other stars include Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill (who will be in Kamloops during filming), and Chinese heart-throb Tony Leung
Ka Fai.
There is the possibility of 65 extras needed per day for 14 days, according to the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission, and
an estimated 30 to 40 local hires as crewmembers over a two-week period.
Part of the movie will be filmed in China for five weeks, and in B.C. for another three weeks.
Vicci Weller, executive director of the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission, has been scouting locations for three months for
the movie around the Kelowna Pacific Railroad between Armstrong and Kamloops, Brodie Loop, and Razor Mountain.
Kettle Valley Railroad beds, tunnels, and cliffs were all inspected by Weller, who said that Kamloops is considered a prime location
for directors and producers due to its short trip into the wilds of Canada and beauty of landscape.
After taking numerous photos of locations, Weller uploaded them to a website for Massey and Wu to peruse.
Brenda Pollock, operations manager at the Kamloops Heritage Railway, said some filming will take place onboard the historic 2141
stream engine.
Pollock said a crew of four will run the engine while filming takes place, and that there will be no change to the regular schedule.
She said few demands had been made from the director, except that a few modifications had to be made to the 1912 engine so it would
fit the look of a steam train in the 1880s.
And he requested crewmen grow mustaches and beards and wear costumes to suit the role of railroad men in the 1880s.
"We're all really looking forward to it and we are really excited," said Pollack.
The shooting time onboard will take six days, starting 9 Jun 2007.
Anyone curious to see the train decked out, or catch a glimpse of the movie set, can still purchase tickets for the Armstrong
Explorer which travels from Campbell Creek to Armstrong and back.
The Movie Plot
It's 1882 and Alfred Nichol, the tycoon building the railroad through the massive Rocky mountains, faces bankruptcy!
His banker, George Grant, would call his loans, except that his daughter is crazy about Nichol's playboy son, James.
Desperate, Nichol dispatches James to China to hire a crew of "Chinks" to blast a track through the rock, at
rock-bottom wages.
When James arrives, he's accosted by a street urchin nicknamed "Little Tiger", whose fierce ambition is to get to North
America, where his father died mysteriously, working on the railroad.
In a fight with a Chinese gang lord, Little Tiger saves James's life.
James is grateful and agrees to hire the kid on his crew sailing to the new world.
He never suspects the truth: that Little Tiger is actually a beautiful young woman who has disguised herself to work in a man's
world... and that she's falling in love with him!
As their railcar approaches the camp, Little Tiger sees grave-markers along the track - signs of the Chinese who have
died on the cliffs.
And once they arrive, she's in for more shocks: the white bosses are racists, the work is back-breaking, and her
tyrannical Chinese boss, the Book Man, is involved in some kind of scam to pocket the wages of the dead Chinese workers.
At the same time, her attraction to James mounts until, under the moon at a secret mountain pool, she decides to reveal her secret to
him.
When the Book Man and his cohorts discover that Little Tiger is about to expose their scam, they plot a fatal "accident" for
the kid on the sheer rock face.
Now everything is at stake, Little Tiger's life, James's love for her, and her search for the truth about her father.
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