Director/writer: Thom Fitzgerald

Producers: Bryan Hofbauer, Thom Fitzgerald

Cast: Lucy Liu, Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh, Stockard Channing, Shawn Ashmore, Sook-Yin Lee.

In a strange way, it’s a shame that when audiences see Thom Fitzgerald’s new feature, 3 Needles, produced by his Halifax prodco Emotion Pictures, most will not fully appreciate the agony experienced by the filmmakers during its production. Not creative agony, or even frustrating mental agony. No, we’re talking about pain, human suffering, injury and sickness. That kind of agony. But all of these were overcome to get Fitzgerald’s vision up on-screen.
The film is about how a global epidemic affects people in three different countries: China, where Lucy Liu sets up a blood donor clinic and inadvertently sets the epidemic in motion; Canada, where we follow a porn actor played by Shawn Ashmore; and South Africa, where Chloe Sevigny plays a nun who tries to help sick children.
Fitzgerald’s The Hanging Garden took the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award in 1997 and tied with Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter for best Canadian film.
It took three years, three continents, a star-studded cast, the weathering of financial hurdles, and an apparent team of masochists to make 3 Needles a reality. Producer Bryan Hofbauer says that, in the end, it was all worthwhile.
Fall 2002: With some funding in place from Telefilm Canada and envelope monies left over from earlier Fitzgerald work, Hofbauer and Fitzgerald pitch 3 Needles to distributor ThinkFilm during the Toronto International Film Festival. Think buys in, taking the North American rights. Fitzgerald begins work on the script and secures broadcast licences from The Movie Network, Super Ecran and Movie Central. As the script evolves, it appears shooting in Africa, China and Montreal will be necessary.
‘It seemed it would be very demanding, as far as the logistics and what it would take,’ says Hofbauer. ‘It was extremely ambitious. Going from what was supposed to be a typical shoot that might take a month to something that would take several months of filming was quite a difference.’
It is decided that because the storylines for the different locations relate only thematically, time and creative liberties can be taken between shoots.
Winter 2003: Olympia Dukakis, a star of Fitzgerald’s The Event, commits to 3 Needles during the Sundance Film Festival. Chloe Sevigny and Sandra Oh sign on as well. Fitzgerald also meets with Scott Speedman (Underworld) about the lead in the Montreal segment.
April/May 2003: The filmmakers arrive in Port St. Johns, South Africa, only to find another crew has taken over the one hotel in the remote locale. The area hasn’t been used for production in 17 years, and it turns out the other crew monopolizing the spot is from the CBC miniseries Human Cargo. This pushes back production by a week.
Differences of opinion over local casting with ThinkFilm cause Fitzgerald to forego his fees from the production so he can buy back the distribution rights. The Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation contributes funding to the project.
Summer 2003: Despite the enthusiasm of the Pondo and Xhosi tribe members recruited to be extras – many of whom had never seen a movie before – the African shoot is wrought with injuries and freakish occurrences.
Lowlights include the plane door to Sevigny’s charter to the Cannes Film Festival blowing off during takeoff; Hofbauer and cinematographer Tom Harting developing tick fever; and Hofbauer and Fitzgerald nearly drowning in front of their African cast the day after actor Ian Roberts is robbed at knife point, and the day before Hofbauer breaks his ribs in a fall after his jeep blows a tire and drives into a boulder. However, on a beach where 40 people drown every year, Hofbauer and Fitzgerald emerge from the water, and the locals take this as a sign of approval from their ancestors and become more enthusiastic about the project.
‘They were taken by what they were seeing happen around us,’ Hofbauer recalls. ‘It’s a place of magic and a whole other set of rules. There was a lot of ceremony to what we were doing out there. Before we could shoot, we sat in the village for three hours while the elders met to discuss us and nod their heads.’
The filmmakers return to North America, where Seville Pictures picks up Canadian distrib rights, and Fitzgerald develops tick fever.
Winter 2004: Fitzgerald travels to Los Angeles looking to fill the financing gap and takes a loan from film investor Bigfoot Partners. While there, he casts Liu and Stockard Channing and meets again with Speedman.
During this time, Hofbauer discovers that filming in China will be difficult because the script has to make it through a censorship board, and be co-submitted by a local filmmaker. The producers he approaches for this favor all refuse, so he begins touring Asia looking for a surrogate locale. He finds Thailand to be a suitable alternative.
September 2004: After researching and writing in China, Fitzgerald arrives in Thailand ready to shoot, only to discover the camera package is suspended in Korea for a week. The package is then held by Thai customs for another week after it arrives.
October 2004: The Thailand shoot goes well despite a monsoon destroying one of the main locations moments after Fitzgerald decides to use it. He is aided in translation for the local cast and crew by an AD and actress Liu. And although DOP Harting is stunning his colleagues with his camerawork, he breaks his toe on his tripod and, along with Fitzgerald, develops ‘severe digestive troubles.’
November 2004: Shooting in Montreal begins after Speedman drops out of the production in favor of the xXx sequel and Shawn Ashmore is cast to replace him. Filming is a breeze in comparison to Africa and Thailand, but somehow the Montreal portion costs more than the other two segments combined. Sevigny rejoins the filmmakers in Montreal to shoot her final scenes and, according to Fitzgerald, with her arrival it felt as though production had come full circle.
Winter 2004/05: The Boxing Day tsunami devastates southern Asia and Hofbauer spends hours on the phone searching for the 3 Needles crew, relieved to discover all are safe.
The first edit of the film, cut by Susan Shanks, comes in at almost four hours. She and Fitzgerald pare it down to two-and-a-half hours.
April 2005: Seville has concerns about the length; an additional half-hour is cut.
Summer 2005: Final sound and post are completed at Premium Sound Montreal and Deluxe Toronto.
September 2005: 3 Needles will have its world premiere at TIFF, nearly three years to the day the process began. It will go on to open the 25th Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, hometown of Fitzgerald and Hofbauer.