With Alberta turning 100 this year, filmmaker/actor Paul Gross is getting personal with his upcoming Passchendaele, a $16-million Alberta-shot war epic looking at the contributions of Canadians in the First World War. The theatrical feature has received an unprecedented $5.5 million in direct investment from the Government of Alberta to get it started.

With some extra shooting days scheduled for Europe, the film is about a Calgary soldier’s experiences in WWI, both at home and fighting abroad, climaxing with the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium, in which thousands of Albertans took part. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein announced the province’s funding contribution in November of last year.

‘It is a firm, strong commitment from the government to help produce a film that tells about a big part of our history that hasn’t really been told,’ says Jerry Bellikka, a spokesperson for the premier’s office. ‘[Klein] felt it was a project that told an important part of Alberta’s military history, and, especially in our centennial year, it is something we’re all very passionate about.’

Gross, a native Calgarian, is directing, starring and writing, and will likely receive a producer’s credit on the film, along with Frank Siracusa, his partner at Toronto prodco Whizbang Films (which is named after a WWI artillery shell). Niv Fichman of Toronto’s Rhombus Media and Francis Damberger of Alberta-based Damberger Film and Cattle Company are also producing. Alliance Atlantis will distribute.

Gross says he has been working toward making this film for about a decade. His grandfather was one of the Albertans who fought in the legendary Battle of Passchendaele, which saw Canadian troops secure the Belgian town. What took other Allied forces three months to fail at was accomplished by Canada in about two weeks. It is considered one of the greatest feats in Canadian military history, and one of several WWI stories Gross’ grandfather related to him.

‘It has always struck me as being peculiar that we do so little with our military history, in particular with that war, although it would have been ferociously difficult to shoot before now – beyond our means and capacity to photograph,’ says Gross.

With the full cooperation of the Canadian military, Gross will shoot the film’s complicated, large-scale battle scenes at Alberta’s Canadian Forces Base Suffield. For the sake of authenticity, he says he will likely use military professionals and militia in the battle scenes because ‘it is very hard to get extras to look as though they are trained soldiers. We’ll have hundreds [of soldiers] and we’ll CGI some more.’

With Toronto’s CORE Digital Pictures onboard to handle the CG effects work, Gross anticipates an even larger challenge will be recreating the town of Ypres, which served as a military gateway to the Belgian section of the Western Front. He foresees a large set build, as well as CG effects, being required for the sequence.

‘It’s probably the thing that scares me the most,’ laughs Gross. ‘[The film] will be large, but… I think it should be constrained as much as possible to the human geography, and then at some point [open up to] a couple of really big shots.’

The producers are currently in the process of securing the remaining funding and plan to begin production in the summer. The release date, reported as Nov. 11 – Armistice Day – is still to be determined.