Red Deer’s Ignition Theatre is branching out further with the announcement of a film version of a critically-acclaimed stage production.
In May of 2010, Ignition presented its world premiere musical Year After Year. Since then, the Ignition Theatre along with Ozmosis Entertainment and The Matchbox Theatre Foundation has been hard at work preparing the production for the next step – a feature film version.
Pre-production is underway with shooting beginning in August of 2012 with an anticipated release date in March of 2013.
“When Matt first told me he thought Year After Year would make a great movie, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head,” said Dustin Clark, the film’s director. “Spending the last year thinking and writing and planning has only made me even more excited and more confident that we have something really quite incredible. The size of the project, the scope, and the ability to do some wildly creative things with our imaginative team are all reasons why it appealed to me.
“But at its heart, Year After Year is still a very internal and personal story of finding oneself, presented in a way that we’ve never seen before. The film has become so much deeper, more special, far and beyond what we had imagined, and I can’t wait to begin.”
About 80% of production will take place in Red Deer/Central Alberta and the bulk of production dollars will be spent in region.
Year After Year chronicles the dissolving years of seven friends in their late 20’s as they navigate the tumultuous waters of hollow careers, lost ambition, forgotten dreams and the relationships that matter most, even when we can’t recognize it.
Bill is ‘celebrating’ his 28th birthday with his closest friends; Hunter, his best friend, is an ultra successful photographer living in London, Todd and Rachel are couple teetering on the edge of divorce, Peter and Laura have been dating since college and are looking towards the next step and Kate, who has known Bill for as long as she can remember, is trying to negotiate her love for him and her need to let go.
Year After Year examines how even the most nuanced moments in our lives can have a monumental impact on our decisions and our future.
In the meantime, a fundraising initiative for the film is underway as well.
“The Central Alberta community has always been incredibly supportive of the arts and supporting the creation of new work and we expect that, with this incredibly exciting project, Central Albertans will be willing to get behind this production. We depend on that support to ensure the success of Year After Year,” said Greg Fiddler, producer.
In addition to several special events, government funding and contributions from the local business community, the production will be looking to raise additional funding through a special campaign called ‘250’. The concept involves receiving 250 individual donations in the amount of $250 over the next 250 days.
Donations will be accepted online (www.yearafteryearmusical.com), in person at each Ignition performance and at special events planned throughout the next several months.
“The past year has been a whirlwind as we’ve been writing draft after draft of the screenplay, workshopping the later versions, re-imagining the music, the characters and really examining, in depth, the story we are telling,” said Matt Grue, artistic director of Ignition Theatre.
“This single project represents a budget greater than an entire theatrical season, a team of artists greater than every season combined and an opportunity to expand the artistic realm in which we work.”
-Weber
