Director Charles Andre (from right) and actor Clifton Murray film a promotional spot for Blackie’s Coast, a TV show Andre plans to make based on Jack Schofield’s book Flights of a Coast Dog. Below, Andre, Schofield and Murray pose on set.
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ShareDirector hopes star-powered show will take flight
By Grant Warkentin - Campbell River Mirror
Published: September 30, 2008 5:00 PM
Updated: October 01, 2008 9:22 AM
Combine a stuntman-turned-director, a Canadian Idol, a yet-unnamed Canadian star and Campbell River floatplanes and you might get the next great Canadian TV show.
Charles Andre, who has decades of experience in the movie and TV business as a stuntman, stunt co-ordinator, assistant director and second unit director, is spearheading a TV show concept called Blackie’s Coast. The show is based on the stories in Flights of a Coast Dog, a book by Jack Schofield, who flew floatplanes out of Campbell River for 20 years.
Andre, cameramen Steve Fagan and Andrew Noysmith, Schofield and actor Clifton Murray were in Campbell River Monday to shoot a promotional spot for the show.
“It’s a family show,” Andre said. “It’s good, wholesome action-adventure, based on the adventures of Blackie.”
Comparisons to the venerable “Beachcombers” are inevitable, but Andre – who actually worked on a few episodes of the classic Canadian show – said with prime-time TV becoming increasingly violent, there’s a niche to fill for a family-friendly adventure show.
Blackie, the show’s main character, will be played by an “accomplished Canadian actor” who is still negotiating with Andre’s company. But although the character is largely fictionalized, it has some roots in Schofield’s past.
“There was a real person called Blackie,” Schofield said. “He had a Greek name that no one could pronounce, so everyone called him Blackie.”
But Blackie is based mainly on Schofield – many of the stories are autobiographical.
“It’s my own story, in a way,” he said.
Murray, best-known for his role in the film She’s the Man and for his performances on Canadian Idol, plays Alex Gibson, a helicopter pilot. The role is perfect for him – his father Craig Murray owns and operates the Nimmo Bay Resort near the Broughton Archipelago – one of the locations planned for the show – and Murray said it’s great to be back on the Central Coast near where he grew up (Port McNeill).
Andre said he’s still looking for “equity partners” to buy into the show, but he’s optimistic it will catch on. The promotional spot will include lots of flying shots to show off the North Island’s beauty.
He wasn’t disappointed with Monday’s filming.
“It was great – we got feature film quality stuff in high-definition,” he said Tuesday morning.
Andre and his crew will be back in spring to film the pilot for the show, and after that they hope to be able to film a 22-episode series. If it goes ahead, the crew would use Campbell River as their base camp, and Andre said he couldn’t have picked a better location.
“They’ve been fantastic to us,” he said. “Everybody has been great, going out of their way to make us feel welcome.”
Corillair and West Coast Helicopters are doing all the fixed-wing and helicopter shots for the show.
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