Author: jcalberta
Klondike Mini-Series Update …
Discovery Channel looking for TV gold with Alberta-shot miniseries Klondike
A muddy Dawson City built west of Calgary
The set of Discovery Channel´s Klondike in Alberta.
Photograph by: Courtesy, Dan Power , Handout
It’s an alarming spectacle to take in. Dozens of extras trudge slowly to a tent in between takes on the sprawling Alberta set of the Discovery Channel’s miniseries Klondike, all having an appropriate air of misery about them. The cameras may not be rolling, but they still appear fairly tuned into the despair of characters who have arrived in the Yukon just before the onset of winter. It’s actually a beautiful day in Alberta. Sweltering even. Unfortunately, for now, this is not particularly helpful when filming on the CL Ranch, a location west of Calgary where a booming Dawson City has been recreated.
Mother Nature often does her part to add authenticity to Alberta-shot period pieces, especially those epics with a man-versus-nature theme.
Today, however, it’s hot. Yet the extras who are working are supposed to look cold. They are bundled up. They wear scarves and hats. The women wear long dresses and coats. Many of the men sport long, unruly beards. They feverishly rub their hands together and huddle on what is supposed to be the less-then-welcoming docks on the Yukon River in Dawson City circa the late 1890s.
“It’s cold, remember,” Assistant Director Dave McLennan reminds the extras. “Brrrrrrrrr. Your hands and feet are cold.”
It’s not just the extras who are feeling the heat.
“We’re trying to pretend it’s winter,” says lead actor Richard Madden, attempting to cool off on the set in between takes. “I’ve got like 19 layers here and a dry suit. I’m so hot.”
The irony of enduring a day of uncomfortable heat is not lost on Madden. In a fairly short period of time, he has experienced some wildly divergent weather in Alberta. To Game of Thrones fans, Madden is the action-ready Robb Stark, a sword-wielding leader of men who has travelled all sorts of terrain during his battles.
But the frigid conditions the 26-year-old Scottish actor and fellow cast and crew endured on Fortress Mountain in Kananaskis Country just over a month ago was a whole different battle.
“The hardest bits I suppose were the first couple of weeks, which were probably the hardest couple weeks of shooting I’ve ever had,” he says. “That’s because there was the altitude and the cold. You’ve got four wind machines on you that are the size of a back of a car, or bigger. You’ve got guys shovelling snow at each wind machine. And it’s really cold. And you’ve got the mountain. So that was really challenging. You’re trying to do your job and act as well as dealing with really intense conditions.”
Madden, who plays real-life adventurer Bill Haskell in the miniseries, is not complaining. The adverse conditions certainly helped him find his character in the early goings. And it will no doubt help with the epic feel of the six-hour miniseries, Discovery Channel’s first scripted TV project scheduled to air sometime in 2014. Based on Ottawa writer Charlotte Gray’s book Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich In The Klondike, the series mixes real-life events and historical characters such as Haskell, Belinda Mulrooney and Jack London with a tale of murder, greed and the dashed hopes of those who arrived in Dawson City consumed by gold-rush fever but usually ill-prepared and doomed to fail spectacularly.
Discovery has partnered with iconic British director Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions and Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures, which also produces the Alberta-shot AMC series Hell on Wheels.
Having had much success with reality shows such as Gold Rush, Jungle Gold and Bering Sea Gold, Discovery was after a scripted project that explored similar themes.
“Our audience loves the idea of the frontier spirit,” says Discovery’s Dolores Gavin, an executive producer on Klondike. “That whole thing about man versus nature, man versus man, man versus self — those are themes we talk about everyday on Discovery. There was really no difference when we started talking about this project because there were those similarities.”
Epic themes require an epic look. Standing on the sprawling Alberta set on the CL Ranch, it’s clear that Discovery has jumped in with both feet when it came its first scripted series. British director Simon Cellan Jones, a veteran of top-tier television such a Boardwalk Empire, Treme and The Borgias, is at the helm. He oversees an impressive cast that includes Sam Shepard as a haunted man of God named Father Judge and British actor Tim Roth as a villain named The Count. Meanwhile, the production seems to have caught its two leads just as their stars were on the rise. Madden has won fame on Game of Thrones and was recently cast as Prince Charming in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Cinderella. Versatile Australian actress Abbie Cornish, who plays the entrepreneurial Belinda Mulrooney in Klondike, is perhaps best know for playing Fanny Brawne in Jane Campion’s Bright Star and just wrapped up a role in next year’s big-budget reboot of RoboCop after lead roles in films such as Limitless, Sucker Punch and Seven Psycopaths.
And while some of the events in Klondike are fictionalized, both Madden and Cornish did a good deal of research on their respective characters, digging up books and biographies to help get into the headspace of those who sought riches and adventure in the unforgiving Klondike during the gold-rush years.
This attention to detail is a hallmark of the production as a whole, particularly amid the meticulously recreated Dawson City. The impressive set was built up on an already existing town on the CL Ranch that has been a location for a number of Alberta-shot projects. With mud-caked roads, newly built businesses, piles of fresh lumber and dubious-looking meat sold off of carts, this Dawson City is an alluring mix of filth and boom-town commerce.
Massive dogs — Newfoundlanders, Irish Wolfhounds, Great Pyrenees crosses, among others — roam the streets with their owners, a realistic touch given that few horses survived the trek to the Klondike during this period.
“Discovery now knows how to build a town,” says Gavin with a laugh. “With our audience, we’ve got to ring true to the historical record. The action that is happening in Klondike was so immense in Dawson City. You can’t do that with eight or nine buildings, you need 30 buildings. So we have 30 buildings. If you really go back and look at the research, Dawson City was like Vegas. It was going 24-seven and you never knew what was going to happen.”
But while this miniseries may be aiming for feature-film production values, it is still television. Six hours worth of action has to be shot over 54 days, which requires long hours of perpetual motion in all sorts of conditions.
“I’ve really enjoyed the momentum of it, the impulsive nature of it,” says Cornish. “A lot of times, because Richard and I are the leads, if we get it in two takes then that’s it. We’re moving on.”
While Cornish did not shoot scenes on blustery Fortress Mountain, her first week shooting near Canmore involved learning how to become an expert dog sledder to believably play the resourceful Mulrooney.
“It was a very full-on week and very elemental and really set the tone for that landscape,” she said. “If we had just gone straight into Dawson City we would have no idea about what the outside of that landscape is. We just would have known the mud and the city and the rain.”
For Madden, the epic feel of Klondike is not only due to the massive sets and scenic vistas, but the intimate human drama of the stories being told.
“There is a huge part of the stories that can be epic visually because of what we see,” he says. “And there’s huge parts that are epic when its just a scene between me and Abbie Cornish and it’s just the two of us standing and talking. That’s more epic than any mountains in the background just because of the intensity of the scene.”
Marvin Western Filmography 6 The Comancheros (1961)
Marvin Western Filmography 6 The Comancheros (1961)
Lee Marvin / John Wayne
Lee makes it to the Top of the Mountain – A Western with John Wayne
… But he’s still 5th on the Bill
The Comancheros Trailer
Marvin Western Filmography 6 Pillars of the Sky (1956)
Lee Marvin and Jeff Chandler
Marvin … 5th on the Bill
Marvin Western Filmography 5 The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953)
Lee Marvin and Randolph Scott
DVD Talk – Partial Review / Review by Stuart Galbraith IV | posted August 24, 2005
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/17309/stranger-wore-a-gun-the/
The Stranger Wore a Gun is a muddled mess made palatable by Scott’s likeable hero, a strong supporting cast, and the novelty of 3-D at its most nakedly exploitive.
Marvin Western Filmography 4 … Seven Men from Now (1956)
Lee Marvin and Randolph Scott
Lee moves up to 3rd on the Bill …
Warning: Huge Spoiler below …
… Lee gets killed …
Marvin Western Filmography 3 … The Raid (1954)
Lee Marvin and Van Heflin
Lee moves up to 4th on the Bill
… a change of plans …
One Line Reviews: Iain Stott
http://1linereview.blogspot.ca/2009/03/raid-1954.html
The Raid (1954)
Recommended
USA Feature Film
Director: Hugo Fregonese
Writers: Sydney Boehm, Francis Cockrell, Herbert Ravenal Sass
Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard
Composer: Roy Webb
Cast: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin,
Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves
Fregonese’s fact based US Civil War film, chronicling a confederate soldier’s infiltration of a small town in Vermont as he prepares to sack it, complicated by his meeting of an attractive young widow, is, with its excellent performances and uncompromising scripting, a thrilling yet intelligent examination of the ambiguities of war and human relationships.
Marvin Western Filmography 2 … Gun Fury (1953)
Pretty lousy posters …
Marvin molesting … what? again?
MFW: about the only thing I liked about Gun Fury was that is was filmed around Sedona, Arizona – one of my favorite places on the planet.
Marvin Western Filmography … Hangman’s Knot 1952
Trailer:
Lee is 5th on the Bill
Lee Marvin … Wandering Star
Lee Marvin … Wandering Star
Monte Walsh … a real maverick …
Monte-Walsh Theme – Mama Cass / John Barry
“Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.”
– Jack Palance
Monte Walsh … a real maverick
MFW: Monte Walsh seemed to get decent promotion – lots of excellent posters – and boasts a stellar cast … yet somehow seemed to slip under the fence.
But I believe this is one Western that will age well and eventually earn it’s rightful place at the bar.
MFW: “100%” from critcs and “57%” from viewers ??
That’s a pretty large canyon.
But I liked it.
“When we get through… you’re gonna want to take a nap, sit on the porch and wait for the mares to come callin’.”
Monte Walsh … 1970
Lee …
Lee Marvin … Wandering Star
Bad Guys of Western Film … cont’d …
“I’ve had the simple pleasure of being present when the sun was shining and the rain was falling.
I’ve had mine, and nobody can take it away from me.”
Badguys: Part 1 … Lee Marvin
Badguys: Part 1 … Lee Marvin
(The Man who Shot) Liberty Valance – Gene Pitney
Lee Marvin
“This time, right between the eyes.”
Lee Marvin Western Filmography
Gun Fury (1953) / The Raid (1954) / The Comancheros (1961) / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) / Cat Ballou (1965) / The Professionals (1966) / Paint Your Wagon (1969) / Monte Walsh (1970) / The Spikes Gang (1974) …
TV Westerns: Wagon Train, Bonanza, and The Virginian …
Military career
Allegiance – United States
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
Years of service 1942–1945
Rank Private First Class
Unit 24th Marine Regiment
Battles/wars
World War II
Battle of Saipan
Awards Purple Heart
Not so bad after all …
Dragons Loyalty Award !
Folks / Friends / Western Fans !
I was given yet another Award by kind Blogging pals and gals.
Here is the esteemed:
Dragons Loyalty Award !
The Dragons Loyalty Award is a combination of The Versatile Blogger Award and the Very Inspiring Blogger award.
This award has been given to me by the Serendipity:
http://teepee12.com/2013/03/10/1001-posts-and-the-dragons-loyalty-award/
Rules for The Dragons Loyalty Award:
Display the Award Certificate on your website
Done
Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented your award
Done
Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers
Not Done
Drop them a comment to tip them off after you’ve linked them in the post
Not Done
Post 7 interesting things about yourself.
Not Done
I have not complied with some conditions.
Well … it’s a major event for me just to figure out how to get these award images onto my sidebar widget …
And I still don’t know how I finally succeeded.
It’s all basically trial and error for rookie Blogger like me …
The Lone Ranger Creed
The Lone Ranger Theme / William Tell Overture / Gioachino Rossini
The Lone Ranger: “Only you, Tonto, know I’m alive. To the world, I’ll be buried here beside my brother and my friends… forever.”
Tonto: “You are alone now. Last man. You are lone ranger.”
Award Recipient: Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness
Dear Friends / Folks / Western Fans !
Time to toot my horn a bit.
I am the proud recipient of the:
Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness
http://teepee12.com/2013/04/14/epically-awesome-award-of-epic-awesomeness-twice/
Amazing !
But as I said, with exceptional subject matter like The Lone Ranger and Tonto, how could I fail?
In truth, this is about the 5th Award that kind Bloggers have sent my way, but I’ve been callously negligent in posting and responding to these expressions of valued appreciation. I hope to rectify this in the near future and post all these kind awards I’ve received.
In compliance with one condition of the Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness I am to post 10 epic and/or awesome facts about myself.
I will therefore just re-post my comment from Serendipity Blog.
http://teepee12.com/2013/04/14/epically-awesome-award-of-epic-awesomeness-twice/#comment-13834
“10 epic and/or awesome facts about myself ???
Ah shucks … I can only think of none.
I’ll have a couple of jiggers and make some stuff up.
1. i didn’t graduate from high school. True.
i don’t figure I wuz stoopid. just disinterested.
2. My Dad, myself and my 3 older brothers were all in the Calgary Highlanders.
My Dad fought in the war. The rest of us just fought each other.
3. I have been ‘out of the body’ on several occasions.
Mostly on purpose.
4. I held a broad jump record that lasted 14 years.
5. As a 15-year-old grocery clerk I once gave a customer (who said he was looking for “butterfly nuts”), a box of mothballs. (Hes’ still laughing)
6. I don’t own any guns.
Or a horse.
7. I was once saved from getting hit by a car by an invisible hand that pushed me back onto the curb. I believe in spiritual guardians.
8. i was never sure I was on the right planet. Is this Naboo?
9. I quit drinking, smoking, and drugs.
God I’m bored. (Just kidding … about being bored)
10. I’ve had seven partners.
This last one – Rose – is a keeper.
OK .. Part One of my Duties of Compliance have been completed.
Part Two is Give it to 10 bloggers you think are awesome and/or epic – or both.
Well … being a reclusive Cowboy, I can’t rightly think of 10 offhand, but I’ll just start sending them out till the dust settles.
Have a good one.