Patrick Swayze will be among the first major stars to work at the Prairie Production Centre's brand-new soundstage in Winnipeg when he begins shooting the movie Dancing Without A Word in January.
The announcement was made yesterday at a ribbon cutting for the $2.2 million first phase of the $7.7 million centre, which will feature two 5,000-square-metre soundstages, a commissary and plenty of office space when construction is completed late in 2000, a year in which some industry types predict Winnipeg will do $100 million in film business.
Swayze (Dirty Dancing, Ghost) and his wife, Lisa Niemi, who will reportedly direct and write the screenplay for Dancing Without A Word, have long wanted to work together on a film version of the 1984 play, which, naturally, revolves around dance.
Regina's Mind's Eye Pictures and Franchise Films of Los Angeles are co-producers of the project.
Genevieve Bujold (Dead Ringers, Anne Of The Thousand Days) and Michael Moriarty (Law & Order) will be among the inaugural performers at the new soundstage on Pacific Avenue, arriving early next month to begin their roles in the Buffalo Gal Pictures/Tapestry Films movie Children Of My Heart, which begins shooting Thursday. Based on late Winnipeg-raised writer Gabrielle Roy's novel of the same title, Children Of My Heart will be shot in Winnipeg and in several rural locations, including Teulon, Poplar Point and a site near Carmen.
Capping a banner year for filmmaking in Winnipeg -- and for Buffalo Gal's Phyllis Laing, who brought home one of 12 Gemini Awards to Manitoba last month for The Genius Of Lenny Breau -- Children Of My Heart features French-Canadian actress Genevieve Desilets as the young Gabrielle Roy.
A movie of the week for A-Channel and Movie Television, the drama is set during the Depression, when a young Montreal teacher accepts a position in a small rural Manitoba town and falls in love with a 15-year-old Metis student named Mederic, who will be played by Yani Gellman.
Toronto's Tapestry Films also co-produced the TV mini-series The Arrow in Winnipeg in 1996. Buffalo Gal recently finished shooting the film The Law Of Enclosures, starring Sarah Polley and Diane Ladd.
The company was also nominated for a Gemini Award for its co-production of the documentary Gabrielle Roy.
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