Mettler working on ‘controlled’ feature and an ‘intuitive’ project

Director/cinematographer Peter Mettler (Pictures of Light, Tectonic Plates) – known as one of this country’s few true visionaries – says the ideal path for him is to work on a ‘controlled’ dramatic feature film while maintaining ‘a connection to a more evolving, intuitive process.’

That’s exactly what he’s doing – and more.

The feature is The Mating Game, and it’s a take on what happens to a newly matched couple on The Dating Game who’ve won a trip. The idea for the film came to Mettler when he witnessed two new amours accepting what was plugged as ‘a mind-expanding trip’ to a strife-ridden Guatemala.

Mettler imagined what the experience would be like for the potentially doomed travelers who know virtually nothing about one another.

The script, cowritten with Harold Crooks, is being revised and has moved from Guatemala to Western Canada. The backdrop is a rebellion that arises when a foreign industrialist and aboriginals come to loggerheads over land claims. The honeymooners are an ex-football hero and a psychologically unbalanced woman who works as a bank teller.

Gambling, Gods and l.s.d. is the counterpoint to the feature – i