The feature length thriller stars Amanda Crew, Kim Coates, Michael Eklund and Katie Boland.

Coates, a University of Saskatchewan alumnus now living in Los Angeles, has built a successful career, starring in films such as Sons of Anarchy and Black Hawk Down. Eklund graduated from Mount Royal in 1993 and made his way to Vancouver to begin his acting career. Eklund says that growing up, he admired Coates.

“Kim was one of the guys who got out and made a name for himself. He was an inspiration for any actor that was coming through it in Saskatoon,” he says. Laughing, he adds “I told (Coates) that today and I think it touched him.”

The premise of Ferocious is a homecoming for a successful film actress. She’s promoting her film and coming home to a city much like Saskatoon. Director Robert Cuffley says Ferocious is about how dangerous people can become when they have nothing to lose.

Amanda Crew plays the female lead Leigh, a charming and determined actress who left her hometown to make it big in Hollywood. Leigh dumped then-boyfriend and bar manager Eric (Eklund) to make her career move. For five years he’s been heartbroken over the loss. After Leigh returns to her hometown, a plot to retrieve a sexually incriminating videotape from Eric’s bar unfolds as she encounters the ruthless and intimidating Sal (Coates).

The homecoming theme transcends Ferocious. Both Coates and Eklund are returning home after making it big in show business. They’re living the life they’re portraying on screen. The first two weeks of filming have been at night in the Glengarry building and the alley behind it. Dark and edgy, Ferocious can be labelled as film noir for its sexual motivations. Next up, the crew will move to the former Viper Room nightclub to shoot the shady bar scenes before filming wraps up in mid-December.

Playing the bad guy comes easily for Coates. While he loves comedy, he often chooses darker roles and says everyone is typecast at some level.

“My guy (Sal) is someone, that when I read it, right away I wanted to play him. I describe him as a king snake.”

Coates describes Sal as quiet and dark, with a funny side. He can be very violent when needed and something happens in the script to send him over the edge.

“I love being a character actor but I’m very careful with my bad guys. There are certain ones I will not play. Like pedophiles and rapists – I just won’t go there.”

Nearly all of the Ferocious crew members are from the province but most key technical positions had to be brought in from Regina. Producer Carolyn McMaster, of CHAOS, a film company, says this is a problem.

“My hope for the future of film in Saskatoon is that they develop more of an infrastructure moving forward. I hope the province is behind filmmaking.”

She says that while Saskatoon is a good training ground, more needs to be done to encourage highly qualified people to stay.

“I would encourage the students in filmmaking to stay in Saskatchewan and make this a viable film centre.”

One person who has done that is Daniel Ford Beavis. The owner of O’Shea’s Irish Pub and fight director for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan is also a stunt performer in the Saskatchewan film industry. He says he doesn’t blame talented people for moving to larger centres to pursue their careers.

“I’ve decided I’ll stay here. The U of S drama department turned out much of our talent for (Ferocious).”

Coates agrees. He studied drama at the U of S from 1978 to 1982 and says he loves to watch the current graduates and what they do with their talent.

That talent has been ramping up production for the Saskatchewan film industry. Several feature length films have recently been made in the province. Anand Ramayya began the production company Karma Film in Saskatoon in 2002 and is one of the producers of Ferocious. He has watched the industry in Saskatchewan steadily grow over the past decade. Ramayya feels the province has much to offer filmmakers in the way of locations and artists, but that the film industry needs support.

“We have to get the community behind us (and) keep supporting the arts. We need to make Saskatoon an affordable and attractive place to shoot,” he says.

Cuffley says Saskatoon was his top choice for Ferocious and after scouting locations this summer, had to make a tough decision between the Bridge and Queen cities.

“I’m not trying to create a rivalry of course, but Saskatoon seemed to have a little more colour.”

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The thriller by writer/director Robert Cuffley also stars Kim Coates and Michael Eklund and is shooting in Saskatoon through mid-December.

Crew just completed the role of a drug-addicted runaway in the Canadian urban thriller Charlie Zone from director Michael Melski.

Ferocious is produced by Calgary-based Chaos and Saskatoon based KarmaFilm.

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Sibling relationships are under the microscope in Sisters & Brothers, the latest film from Canadian director Carl Bessai, who also used the ensemble technique for Mothers & Daughters and Fathers & Sons. If you have a brother or sister, you’ll be able to relate any of the pairs profiled in the film, as the writing is often sharp in the first half.
We meet Jerry (Benjamin Ratner) and Louise (Gabrielle Miller, of Corner Gas fame), a bro and sis with a decidedly tough problem: Jerry suffers from schizophrenia and Louise has to nurse him back to normalcy. She soothes him during his fits and tries to understand why he chooses a homeless man as a lawyer. The tension between the two is displayed perfectly, and you start to sympathize with both Jerry and Louise as they try to find peace with each other.

In another storyline, Justin (Cory Monteith from Glee) is a famous young actor meeting his brother Rory (Dustin Mulligan) at the airport as screaming girls mob them. Rory explains why he’s passionate about helping children in Africa as Justin looks out the limo window absent-mindedly. They don’t vibe as well as they thought they would; Rory complains Justin is obsessed with fame while still remaining lonely and Justin criticizes Rory for not helping their mother. After all, the hotshot actor can afford to send his mom cheques every month. Some of the arguments between the two showcase some of the best dialogue in the film.

We’re then shuttled to two sisters, Nikki (Amanda Crew) and Maggie (Camille Sullivan), and Bessai sticks with the starstruck-actor theme – Nikki wants to make it in Hollywood while Maggie tries to bring her down to earth. When Nikki meets an ambitious but foolhardy producer looking for his leading lady, the three go on a road trip to L.A. destined to either bring them together or shatter their relationships.

Finally, we peek into the lives of a mother and daughter relationship, where teenager Elizabeth (Nicola Anderson) is a single child…until her mom surprises her with a long-lost sister from India. The shock segues to hate and resentment, and Anderson does a fantastic job embodying the frustrated teen angry at how a new element will disrupt her family.
As intriguing as these characters become, the second half of the film is contrived and riddled with cliches. Lest this review reveal too many spoilers, let’s just say you can see where these characters go before we even get there. It’s annoying, especially since Sisters & Brothers had such a promising beginning.

Also, Bessai uses comic-book cutaways and thought-bubbles throughout the film, something we recently saw in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It works for the latter film but not for this real-life drama. The cartoony technique comes off as immature, even if it breaks apart the many varying plots.

Sisters & Brothers provides some insight into sibling relationships, so it might be worth the ticket price for those who can relate to some of its themes. But to be a truly great film it needs a tighter ending and less predictable outcomes.

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“Precious” producer Sarah Siegel-Magness makes her directorial debut with the pic, which stars Meg Ryan as a woman who suffers a nervous breakdown after her cheating husband leaves her. Zach Gilford and Graham Rogers co-star as her two sons who, along with the latter’s live-in girlfriend (Amanda Crew), attempt to comfort Ryan in her time of need.

Michalka will play Janine, a local girl who went to high school with Rogers and finds herself attracted to him despite being a few years older.

Fimmel will play Jeff, an intelligent Grateful Dead fan who sells pot to Rogers, while Zima will play Annie, an earnest hippie who works at a food co-op and gets fixed up with Gilford.

Karen McCullah (“The House Bunny”) wrote the script, which is based on April Stevens’ novel “Angel, Angel.” Scribe will also produce with Bobbi Sue Luther and Gary Magness, while Andrew Sugerman and Seth Jaret will exec produce.

Production will start next month in Los Angeles.

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Stepping on my soap box

To the person who created and runs http://twitter.com/#!/IAmandaCrew

I’m flattered that you want to make a Twitter account to pretend to be me. I gotta be honest with you, my life isn’t really that exciting, so hopefully you are having a good time living it on the cyber world. I’m all for you having fun playing in fantasy land, however, I don’t want people out there to think that your words, ideas, thoughts and opinions are in fact mine. I realize I can’t stop you. I’m not the Twitter police (I don’t think they exist, although I am down to be on the force). So until then all I can do is give you a shout out and hopefully spread the word that you are not me. You want to pretend to be me? That’s cool. But please don’t link your Twitter account to my personal website. I like to be honest with my peeps, and you are sending out a false image of me…

Thanks!

Sincerely,

that girl that you are pretending to be.

And in case this wasn’t clear — I don’t have a Twitter account. If I ever do get one, I’ll be sure to let you know.