Downtown Wallaceburg is set to be shut down on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 13), as crews and actors comes to town to film parts of a new movie.
Aaron Huggett, creative director for Eclipse Media Productions, told the Sydenham Current some scenes for his short film “Red Ryan” will also be shot in Dresden on Sunday.
“We are going to be shooting in Wallaceburg Sunday afternoon and then actually Dresden in the evening,” Huggett said. “We are going to be filming in Lambton and Chatham-Kent five different days but Sunday is kind of the bigger day in the shoot.”
Huggett, who grew up in Sarnia, said Red Ryan tells the story of a notorious Canadian bank robber who was made famous by an article that Ernest Hemingway wrote for the Toronto Star when Red escaped from the Kingston Penitentiary.
“It became this national phenomenon and Red got notoriety from it,” Huggett said. “So years later when he is in prison the Prime Minister that had a tough go his first time through was running for re-election as really the only success he had in his first term was prison reform. He has transition Canadian prisons from this kind of 17th or 18th century model of doing things where there was torture, there was electro shock treatment, there were women and children in the general population with men. He did away
with all that.”
Huggett added: “So when he went for re-election he did it on the platform of reform and he needed a spokesperson for the prison reform. So he was friends with this Catholic priest who was the Chaplin at Kingston Penitentiary. The priest recommended Ryan for the kind of a poster boy for this prison reform system.”
Huggett said Red was issued a ticket of leave from serving a 25 to life sentence.
“He was just let free,” Huggett said. “Signed by the Prime Minster on the condition that he give public speeches with the police and kind of the elite of society in the towns across Canada promoting prison reform on behalf of the Prime Minister to stir up votes but the entire time he was doing this, on the side he was secretly robbing banks.”
Huggett said Red’s gang actually robbed banks in Chatham, Wyoming and they were inevitably caught in a shootout with Sarnia Police in May of 1936.
“It’s one of those stories, they were from Toronto so there are a lot of ties to Toronto and Ottawa, but it’s something that kind of touched smaller communities across southwestern Ontario and Quebec as well. We think it’s going to have some broader appeal rather than just local as well,” he said.
Huggett said some of the filming will be taking place in Gatsby’s Grill House, while in Wallaceburg.
“We are going to be shooting a variety of exteriors,” he said. “We will be closing James Street. So we have worked with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and Chatham-Kent Police Services to do that. We will be dressing up sections of James Street to look like the 1930’s and we will have 1930’s cars and extras walking the streets in costume, staging a 1930’s bank robbery outside the dental clinic at the end of James Street.”
Huggett added: “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a lot of fun for James Street and of course for our cast and crew that are coming from all over to take part in it.”
Huggett said while in Dresden they will be shooting a brief scene that shows a news boy selling news
papers, reporting on this event that happened from the story.
Some more tidbits of informations about the film:
– About half of the film’s budget came through local contributions.
– The cast and crew are volunteers.
– The total budget for the 30 minute film is under $6,000.
– More than 3 years of research was done while developing the screenplay
– It was a Scriptapalooza Top 100 of 2013 Official Selection
– About a dozen newspapers and radio networks have featured the production prior to beginning filming.
– The Cast/Crew/Extras are made up of more than 100 locals, and others from as far as Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Toronto
– 1800 people viewed the casting call
– 4 movie sets were constructed entirely from scratch, and we will film in around 10 locations in Sarnia, Petrolia and Wallaceburg
– The film will be screened locally in 2016, and be entered into film festivals
– If the filmmakers can find investors it will be completed into a full length feature film. Seeking $50,000 in investment capital to complete the 90 minute feature.
– Writer/Director Aaron Huggett’s iMDB Bio: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3859431/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
– Two Sarnia Police staffers will play two of the Sarnia Police officers in the movie
– During research, family members of 3 of the officers involved in the shooting were interviewed, and Red Ryan’s nephew.
– The recent cast rehearsal featured a special guest, the great-nephew of Red Ryan (whose “Father” is featured in the film as a young boy).
– Red Ryan will be played by two actors. Maxx Cabajar (child) and Dan Huggett (adult)
– Research contributions have been made by The Sarnia Observer and the Toronto Star, Lambton Library Researchers and several local historians
– Some local businesses which have supported the film include: TJ Liquidators, The Rock Family Church, Crave Cosmetics, The Rooted Bohemian, Gatsby’s Grill, The Imperial Theatre, The Oil Museum of Canada among others.
– The Liquor Store where the shootout occurred has been reconstructed in the same building it happened inside 79 years ago.
