* Director/writer/DOP: Carl Bessai * Producers: Jacquelyn Renner,

Carl Bessai * Diary by: Sean Davidson

Three is the magic number. And even though they don’t comprise a formal trilogy, director Carl Bessai wanted to make a third film, Emile, to revisit the themes he played with in his previous works, 1999’s Johnny and 2001’s Lola.

The picture follows an aged professor, played by the inimitable Sir Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings, X-Men), who travels from his home in England to reconnect with his only living relative, a niece played by Deborah Kara Unger (Thirteen).

Bessai and associate producer Jacquelyn Renner recall the picture’s slow development and panicky production.

Fall 2000: Still at work on Lola, Carl Bessai starts to write and workshop ideas for his third film, Emile, testing material on some of his regular actors, including Chris William Martin and Ian Tracey.

Spring 2001: Bessai shows a rough draft to Lola coproducer Jacquelyn Renner, who provides notes and other feedback. Bessai continues to write through the summer while posting Lola.

September 2001: Lola plays at TIFF while Bessai and Renner talk up Emile to possible backers and stars, including Deborah Kara Unger.

October 2001: Bessai shops Emile to broadcasters – including Movie Central, The Movie Network and CHUM Television – all of whom had backed his earlier films. Despite his strong track record, he says it was a hard sell. ‘If people don’t see car chases, they don’t see sales potential,’ says Bessai. All three express interest. He and Renner begin to draw up plans for a $2-million shoot.

November 2001: Bessai travels to Europe as part of Immersion Europe, a 10-day exchange program for producers and filmmakers run by Telefilm Canada. He still has a 10% to 20% gap in the budget and is considering a copro with Germany or Sweden, but is wary of the financial and logistical complications. A possible German deal is quickly abandoned because of that country’s strict shooting restrictions.

Bessai then meets the ‘very aggressive’ British delegation, which is hawking that country’s immense talent pool to attract much-needed production dollars. He clicks with the appropriately named Jonathan English, who co-heads U.K. prodco Meltemi Entertainment in London with his wife Kim Barnes. A Canada/U.K. copro is discussed.

December 2001 to January 2002: Bessai travels the festival circuit with Lola while seeking a distributor for Emile, and quickly gets interest from Montreal’s Seville Pictures.

February 2002: At the Berlin festival, Bessai meets with English again, and follows him back to London for a meeting with casting director David Hall. They discuss possible male leads, throwing around names like John Hurt, Richard Harris and Ian McKellen.

March 2002: Seville signs on to distribute in Canada, and funding applications go in to Telefilm Canada, B.C. Film and the CanWest Independent Production Fund. Bessai assumes he will get the first two and close all but 10% of the budget. Renner helps with the paperwork but is also busy line producing Guy Bennett’s Punch.

June 2002: Telefilm says no. B.C. Film and CanWest agree to back the movie on the condition that a major star plays the lead, offering $160,000 and $80,000, respectively.

July 2002: English calls with news that McKellen is interested. He is due to shoot X2 in Vancouver that fall and is looking for another project to ‘leave his mark’ on B.C. Bessai is flabbergasted.

Bessai and McKellen meet at the star’s rented oceanside house, talking for several hours on the patio, mostly about theatre. McKellen eventually says he’s uncomfortable with the character, in particular because Emile is Canadian. (‘Accents are not his strong point,’ says Bessai.) Bessai offers to rewrite the script.

August 2002: Bessai does a quick rewrite and has a series of meetings with McKellen, gently pressuring him to sign. Sir Ian, although admittedly bored with X2, waffles for several weeks until Bessai asks him outright, ‘Dude, are you going to make this movie?’ McKellen agrees on the strict condition that shooting must be done in time for him to be back in England for Christmas. Bessai gets it in writing.

September 2002: Now in a race against the calendar, Bessai is ‘madly faxing’ the McKellen letter to investors to close the budget gap. B.C. Film and CanWest both up their support to $200,000 and $120,000, respectively. Telefilm suggests he reapply at a higher budget level, $3 million, but rejects him again. The budget is then slashed to $1.2 million, much of which is taken up by McKellen’s fee, but the financing is still not complete.

Plans for a formal U.K. copro are abandoned because of high posting costs in B.C., but English and Barnes continue to help with the film.

October 2002: McKellen offers to take a massive pay cut. The budget is complete. Casting begins and Unger is signed to the female lead. A crew is hastily hired.

November to December 2002: Emile shoots in less than 20 days on location around Victoria. Bessai flies back to England with McKellen, using up some extra X2 flight vouchers, and shoots the final scenes in London on Dec. 22 with help from Barnes.

Early 2003: The picture goes into post locally with editor Julian Clarke.

May 2003: The final cut is done.

September 2003: Emile plays at TIFF in the Perspective Canada program.

October 2003: Seville will release Emile in Toronto and Vancouver, looking to expand to other major Canuck markets in the coming weeks.