REGINA – The idea for Wolf Cop came out of a love of two genres.
“I was trying to come up with an idea for a script to write and I wanted to do both a werewolf movie and a cop movie, and so I just decided, as weird as it sounded, maybe we should smash them together,” said Lowell Dean, writer and director of a feature film in the making.
Their future prospects might look bleak, but Dean and a group of local filmmakers haven’t given up on Saskatchewan just yet. They’ve entered a national contest to win $1 million to shoot Wolf Cop.
They’re hoping that with a little support from the community, they’ll be able to produce the movie, which they say has blockbuster potential.
“It’s about a man who’s a really bad cop,” said Dean. “A couple really weird incidents start happening that force him to question who he is, what he does and the whole town he lives in. There’s a very dark secret and sometimes it takes becoming a werewolf to become a better man.”
The CineCoup Film Accelerator is a national competition which provides funding for Canadian filmmakers to produce original feature-length films.
Along with a cash prize, the winners also get a guarantee that their film will show in theatres across Canada.
There were 90 projects to begin with and Wolf Cop is now in the top ten.
“I believe the motivation behind CineCoup is just to shake up the film industry,” Dean said. “I say to most people I meet when I’m talking about this project, can you name the last good Canadian film you’ve seen in theatres?”
In order to get there, the team had to produce a trailer, which can be viewed online. Fans can join CineCoup’s Facebook page and vote for which trailer they want to see turned into a full-length film.
Voting for the top five takes place between May 30 and June 2.
“It’s something that would sell in theatres. It’s something that people would flock to theatres to see,” said Bernie Hernando, producer of Wolf Cop.
He added, “It was written around Saskatchewan, based in the rural, small town area…It’s definitely got a Saskatchewan feel to it.”
“The elimination of the film tax credit has been a huge blow. I, myself was on the verge of leaving the province when we entered this competition and it’s kind of the only thing keeping me here right now,” said Dean.
“I’m hoping we can find a way to make Wolf Cop in Saskatchewan.” However, he noted that he doesn’t know if that’s possible anymore.
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