Director: Sturla Gunnarsson * Writer: Ed Riche * Executive producer: Sam Feldman * Producer: Paul Pope * Diary by: Louise Leger

Cape Spear, NF was an unlikely, and at times stormy location shoot for Sturla Gunnarsson’s latest feature, Rare Birds, from Vancouver’s Big Pictures Entertainment and Newfoundland’s Pope Productions.

Much of the filming on the easternmost tip of North America took place in November and December 2000 during a record-setting, snowbound Newfoundland winter. That, and a hurricane.

‘We often had gale-force winds,’ recalls producer Paul Pope. ‘Then the five-day hurricane had some crew worried that pieces of the set would blow off and kill somebody, but that didn’t happen.’

The winter conditions posed an endless challenge for cast and crew. The consolation from alternating snow, rain, cloud and fog, Pope adds, was on-screen ‘atmosphere to die for.’

Rare Birds, based on the novel by Newfoundlander Ed Riche, tells the story of Dave Purcell, played by William Hurt, who deals with a mid-life crisis by returning to his native Newfoundland to open an upscale French restaurant on a rocky cliff.

Predictably, a gastronomic establishment does not fly with Newfoundland’s wild terrain and earthy locals. Just as the bank gets set to repossess the restaurant, a best friend (Andy Jones) hatches a scheme to save the business: trumpet the presence of a rare duck in the vicinity of the restaurant to attract birdwatchers from all over the world. The plan flies: the restaurant soon attracts flocks of gastronomes, nature lovers, vain celebrities and bellicose politicos.

Indeed, the restaurant becomes such a success that Dave must ask his best friend’s mysterious sister-in-law, played by Molly Parker, to help out.

Before long, Dave falls in love.

‘Rare Birds is very much a buddy picture,’ says Gunnarsson, who has directed two previous feature films: Such a Long Journey and Diplomatic Immunity. ‘It’s a love story not only between William Hurt and Molly Parker, but a love story with his best friend and the depths they’ll go to help each other out of trouble. Not only are the ducks a couple of rare birds, but so are all of the main characters.’

Summer 1998: Janet York of Vancouver’s Feldman and Associates (Big Pictures) buys the rights to Newfoundland author Ed Riche’s Rare Birds and contacts Riche, who begins developing a script. She recruits St. John’s-based producer Paul Pope for the project.

Fall 1999: Telefilm Canada participates in the film’s development.

February 2000: Distributor Lions Gate comes on board with ‘a substantial minimum guarantee commitment,’ says Pope. A prebuy deal is inked with the CBC.

March 2000: With the clout of Lions Gate behind it, the production applies for, and later secures, funding from the Canadian Television Fund.

Pope approaches Gunnarsson to direct Rare Birds. Reading the novel, Gunnarsson ‘laughs out loud the whole way through,’ he recalls.

Casting directors are hired in North America and Europe to fill the three primary roles.

Spring 2000: Gunnarsson heads to Newfoundland to rewrite and revise the script with Riche, a process that continues on and off through the summer.

July 2000: Production designer Pamela Hall and DOP Jan Kiesser are brought on board to establish the film’s visual concept. They decide that the restaurant – the film’s key location – will be built on a rocky cliff along the ocean’s edge, and not in the woods as in the original novel.

Location scouts find the perfect rocky perch in Cape Spear, NF. Construction crew, mostly locals and some from British Columbia, are brought on board to build interiors and exteriors.

August 2000: The producers complete the piecemeal funding for Rare Birds. Broadcast prebuys include The Movie Network, Super Ecran and Movie Central. Support also comes from the Harold Greenberg Fund, the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, B.C. Film, the B.C. tax credit program and the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund.

Casting continues. Newfoundland comedian Andy Jones, whom Gunnarsson had in mind from the beginning in the role of Alphonse, Dave’s best friend, agrees to take the role. Molly Parker is also signed. ‘I wanted to see her in a role of a woman rather than as a girl,’ says Gunnarsson. William Hurt shows interest in playing Dave, but negotiations drag on.

September 2000: Preproduction begins as Hurt agrees to take the film’s quirky lead role. ‘He wanted to have this chance to be a goof, to make a fool of himself,’ says Gunnarsson.

October 2000: The 34-day shoot begins, with Hurt and Jones providing a study in contrasts on-set, and Gunnarsson for the first time filming a comedy after a career of documentaries and dramas.

‘It made it interesting because William is a method actor, whereas Andy is a performing actor,’ Gunnarsson recalls. ‘They were both so dedicated. For me, it was really challenging because I’d never done comedy before. I didn’t want the film to play for laughs, but for the humor to come from the situation.’

December 2000: The final day of shooting arrives. Cast and crew are gathered in a house near Cape Spear and the snow is falling fast and furious outside. Parts of the province experience rolling electrical blackouts and road closures. ‘It was hard to keep up with the plowing on the street where we were working and the equipment kept getting buried,’ says Pope. ‘But the snow created a beautiful atmosphere, and at the end of the day – our final day – we felt euphoric.’

January 2001: Post-production begins.

May 2001: The crew returns to Cape Spear to get some ‘non-snowy’ exteriors unavailable during the shoot.

September 2001: Rare Birds premiers in the Perspective Canada program at TIFF.