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Alberta film shoot a dream for Nolan
Wednesday June 30th 2010LOS ANGELES – Shooting Leonardo DiCaprio’s new thriller Inception in Alberta was a dream for director Christopher Nolan.
A frost-bitten, snow-covered, wind-swept dream.
Nolan, whose resume includes Memento and The Dark Knight, traveled last November with his cast and crew to the defunct Fortress Mountain ski resort, about 113 kilometres outside Calgary.
In the science-fiction epic, opening July 16, DiCaprio plays a corporate thief who extracts secrets from the subconscious minds of sleeping targets.
The reality-warping results – which are already being described as James Bond enters The Matrix – culminate in an action sequence set on an isolated, ice-laden mountaintop.
Told the movie makes Canada look even colder than last winter was, Nolan laughs. “You ain’t remembering right, because it was a lot colder than it looks in the film, trust me.”
Maybe so, but the London-born filmmaker, who turns 40 next month, isn’t complaining.
“The conditions were incredibly fortunate for us because when we first went up scouting and we were looking at different ski resorts, I kept saying to people, ‘Where might we have snow in November?’ Because it’s a very tricky time of year for snow. And everybody said Fortress Mountain, this disused ski resort, that’s the place that might get the first dump.”
So while the production began building the movie’s enormous set – which, fittingly, looks like a fortress – Nolan also prepared for the worst-case scenario.
“But I’m a bit of a pessimist so I brought out snow machines to make snow and tried to figure out ways to make fake snow if there wasn’t any. I think the week before we went to do the first day of shooting, we lost all our snow. Even the stuff we’d made had melted to nothing … But then they had the biggest dump I think they’d had for 30 years or something … And it continued to come in. Some days we just shot in the most difficult conditions – howling winds and blizzards. But I take the view of just carrying on shooting. Because even if it’s painful, you’re going to get something extraordinary. And there are shots in the film where you see the cold of the snow and the way it blows across the environment and you’ve got the depth with the mountains behind. There’s nothing like shooting in a real place in real conditions.”
Along with DiCaprio, Nolan’s ensemble included Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and Marion Cotillard.
Nolan says despite the weather, the actors “were great. It’s tough. When you’re up that high and you’re not used to the thin air, I found I’d get dizzy sometimes and have to sit down. But I think they all really enjoyed the extremity of it … Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, they learned to ski in like three or four days; they were given an intensive course and did a tremendous job.”
Says Hardy, who will next star as Mad Max in a sequel entitled Fury Road, “It wasn’t until the end of the film in Calgary where I was introduced to a pair of skis for the first time in my life. And then they tied me to a back of a (snowmobile) in desperation to get a shot as quickly as possible and sent me up the top of the mountain and down it.”
Altogether, Inception shot for two weeks in the area, Nolan says. “We had scheduled three weeks and finished early because the local crew was superb, really fantastic guys, a great local special effects crew. Everything went very, very smoothly.”
And, he adds, while the Hollywood transplants endured the cold, the locals on the crew didn’t appear all that bothered.
“No matter how bad it got, there was always a member of the Canadian crew walking around in shorts,” Nolan says. “I’m not kidding. I don’t know how his legs didn’t form icicles. But just to put us in our place, there’d always be somebody walking by in a pair of shorts.”
Source: The Toronto Sun
Front Page, Industry News
Alberta film shoot a dream for Nolan
Wednesday June 30th 2010LOS ANGELES – Shooting Leonardo DiCaprio’s new thriller Inception in Alberta was a dream for director Christopher Nolan.
A frost-bitten, snow-covered, wind-swept dream.
Nolan, whose resume includes Memento and The Dark Knight, traveled last November with his cast and crew to the defunct Fortress Mountain ski resort, about 113 kilometres outside Calgary.
In the science-fiction epic, opening July 16, DiCaprio plays a corporate thief who extracts secrets from the subconscious minds of sleeping targets.
The reality-warping results – which are already being described as James Bond enters The Matrix – culminate in an action sequence set on an isolated, ice-laden mountaintop.
Told the movie makes Canada look even colder than last winter was, Nolan laughs. “You ain’t remembering right, because it was a lot colder than it looks in the film, trust me.”
Maybe so, but the London-born filmmaker, who turns 40 next month, isn’t complaining.
“The conditions were incredibly fortunate for us because when we first went up scouting and we were looking at different ski resorts, I kept saying to people, ‘Where might we have snow in November?’ Because it’s a very tricky time of year for snow. And everybody said Fortress Mountain, this disused ski resort, that’s the place that might get the first dump.”
So while the production began building the movie’s enormous set – which, fittingly, looks like a fortress – Nolan also prepared for the worst-case scenario.
“But I’m a bit of a pessimist so I brought out snow machines to make snow and tried to figure out ways to make fake snow if there wasn’t any. I think the week before we went to do the first day of shooting, we lost all our snow. Even the stuff we’d made had melted to nothing … But then they had the biggest dump I think they’d had for 30 years or something … And it continued to come in. Some days we just shot in the most difficult conditions – howling winds and blizzards. But I take the view of just carrying on shooting. Because even if it’s painful, you’re going to get something extraordinary. And there are shots in the film where you see the cold of the snow and the way it blows across the environment and you’ve got the depth with the mountains behind. There’s nothing like shooting in a real place in real conditions.”
Along with DiCaprio, Nolan’s ensemble included Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and Marion Cotillard.
Nolan says despite the weather, the actors “were great. It’s tough. When you’re up that high and you’re not used to the thin air, I found I’d get dizzy sometimes and have to sit down. But I think they all really enjoyed the extremity of it … Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, they learned to ski in like three or four days; they were given an intensive course and did a tremendous job.”
Says Hardy, who will next star as Mad Max in a sequel entitled Fury Road, “It wasn’t until the end of the film in Calgary where I was introduced to a pair of skis for the first time in my life. And then they tied me to a back of a (snowmobile) in desperation to get a shot as quickly as possible and sent me up the top of the mountain and down it.”
Altogether, Inception shot for two weeks in the area, Nolan says. “We had scheduled three weeks and finished early because the local crew was superb, really fantastic guys, a great local special effects crew. Everything went very, very smoothly.”
And, he adds, while the Hollywood transplants endured the cold, the locals on the crew didn’t appear all that bothered.
“No matter how bad it got, there was always a member of the Canadian crew walking around in shorts,” Nolan says. “I’m not kidding. I don’t know how his legs didn’t form icicles. But just to put us in our place, there’d always be somebody walking by in a pair of shorts.”
Source: The Toronto Sun
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Front Page, Industry News
Alberta film shoot a dream for Nolan
Wednesday June 30th 2010LOS ANGELES – Shooting Leonardo DiCaprio’s new thriller Inception in Alberta was a dream for director Christopher Nolan.
A frost-bitten, snow-covered, wind-swept dream.
Nolan, whose resume includes Memento and The Dark Knight, traveled last November with his cast and crew to the defunct Fortress Mountain ski resort, about 113 kilometres outside Calgary.
In the science-fiction epic, opening July 16, DiCaprio plays a corporate thief who extracts secrets from the subconscious minds of sleeping targets.
The reality-warping results – which are already being described as James Bond enters The Matrix – culminate in an action sequence set on an isolated, ice-laden mountaintop.
Told the movie makes Canada look even colder than last winter was, Nolan laughs. “You ain’t remembering right, because it was a lot colder than it looks in the film, trust me.”
Maybe so, but the London-born filmmaker, who turns 40 next month, isn’t complaining.
“The conditions were incredibly fortunate for us because when we first went up scouting and we were looking at different ski resorts, I kept saying to people, ‘Where might we have snow in November?’ Because it’s a very tricky time of year for snow. And everybody said Fortress Mountain, this disused ski resort, that’s the place that might get the first dump.”
So while the production began building the movie’s enormous set – which, fittingly, looks like a fortress – Nolan also prepared for the worst-case scenario.
“But I’m a bit of a pessimist so I brought out snow machines to make snow and tried to figure out ways to make fake snow if there wasn’t any. I think the week before we went to do the first day of shooting, we lost all our snow. Even the stuff we’d made had melted to nothing … But then they had the biggest dump I think they’d had for 30 years or something … And it continued to come in. Some days we just shot in the most difficult conditions – howling winds and blizzards. But I take the view of just carrying on shooting. Because even if it’s painful, you’re going to get something extraordinary. And there are shots in the film where you see the cold of the snow and the way it blows across the environment and you’ve got the depth with the mountains behind. There’s nothing like shooting in a real place in real conditions.”
Along with DiCaprio, Nolan’s ensemble included Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and Marion Cotillard.
Nolan says despite the weather, the actors “were great. It’s tough. When you’re up that high and you’re not used to the thin air, I found I’d get dizzy sometimes and have to sit down. But I think they all really enjoyed the extremity of it … Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, they learned to ski in like three or four days; they were given an intensive course and did a tremendous job.”
Says Hardy, who will next star as Mad Max in a sequel entitled Fury Road, “It wasn’t until the end of the film in Calgary where I was introduced to a pair of skis for the first time in my life. And then they tied me to a back of a (snowmobile) in desperation to get a shot as quickly as possible and sent me up the top of the mountain and down it.”
Altogether, Inception shot for two weeks in the area, Nolan says. “We had scheduled three weeks and finished early because the local crew was superb, really fantastic guys, a great local special effects crew. Everything went very, very smoothly.”
And, he adds, while the Hollywood transplants endured the cold, the locals on the crew didn’t appear all that bothered.
“No matter how bad it got, there was always a member of the Canadian crew walking around in shorts,” Nolan says. “I’m not kidding. I don’t know how his legs didn’t form icicles. But just to put us in our place, there’d always be somebody walking by in a pair of shorts.”
Source: The Toronto Sun
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