After three movies in the span of seven months all flopped to various degrees (sort of the reverese Channing Tatum), Taylor Kitsch is licking his wounds and returning back to his native Canada…where he's quietly begun lensing on a new movie.
A remake of a Quebecois film from 2003, with a script by Michael Dowse ("Goon," "Fubar") and Ken Scott (who wrote the original and "Starbuck," which is getting a Hollywood remake with Vince Vaughn), and directed by Don McKellar ("Last Night"), "Grand Seduction" centers on a small town bending over backward to please a new doctor, and encourage him to say, so they can secure a contract for a much needed factory. It's all quite quaint and goofy (at least the original version anyway), and the French version was a massive hit, winding up nomintaed for pretty much every Genie (Canada's version of the Oscars) there is (it won for cinematography).
It's probably a nice indie film reprieve for Taylor before he reteams with "Battleship" helmer Peter Berg on the Navy SEAL flick "Lone Survivor" this fall with Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch. Those these kinds of distinctly Canadian movies tend to have limited appeal beyond their own borders, so we'll see if this is just an English lanuage do over or something with a bit more weight to it. "Grand Seduction" is now filming in St John's, Newfoundland with Gorden Pinsent, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones and Liane Balaban rounding out the cast. [Variety]