Lethbridge raised independent film makers Aaron Kurmey, Ryan Hatt and Kevin Johnson ran into a few hiccups while shooting their independent movie “the Medic.”
They lost pretty much all of the original footage in a computer drive crash, then rewrote it from a zombie attack to an alien invasion and reshot the entire movie in about four days.
The result, renamed “Battle Earth,” has done incredibly well for them. They brought the original film to the Action On International film festival in Los Angeles where they immediately scored an international distribution deal, then won two of the five awards they were nominated for including best screenplay and best art direction and were the runners up for best special effects.
They had to make a few changes to the movie including changing the title.
“It’s not our favourite title in the world but the distributors thought it would be easier to translate,” said Rambunxious Entertainment president Aaron Kurmey.
He noted the original title, the Medic, could be interpreted in a number of ways by audiences expecting a film about paramedics and doctors instead of film about a group of Canadian soldiers trying to stave off an alien / zombie invasion.
They filmed the movie in Lethbridge two summers ago with a lot of community support including community members playing zombies and soldiers.
The distributors also asked them to add a few more scenes of dialogue and punch up the special effects, which they did for the “redux” version of the film.
“It’s more intense,” he said adding they left the film in Los Angeles for additional polish and picture quality, which they expected to be completed by Dec. 28.
They were pleased with winning the awards, but especially the distribution deal.
“A distribution deal is the Holy Grail of independent film making and we got it,” he said adding receiving the awards a few days after the deal was the icing on the cake. The deal will put the film in theatres all over the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and as far away as India and Japan plus they will see the DVDs of the movies distributed in big box stores like Wal Mart and HMV.
They have been working on the movie for a long time.
“It’s been two years, but it seems longer,” Kurmey continued, adding they recently relocated their film company to Edmonton.
“It’s a larger centre. We didn’t want to go to Vancouver or Toronto and be a small fish in a big sea. In Edmonton we’re as still a small fish but we’re in a little bigger sea,” he said.
“And we wanted to stay close to home in Alberta. It’s cheaper to film in Alberta,” Kurmey added, on his way to his day job delivering pizzas while they wait for the distribution deal to bear fruit.
His partners Ryan Hatt and Kevin Johnson also hold down day jobs at a liquor store and hospital respectively.
“This is the dream. It’s been a dream, but now it’s becoming reality,” he said.
They are concentrating on their next project, a “violent drama,” tentatively titled “Black Taxi.”
“It’s a violent drama rather than an action movie. The violence will serve the story rather than the story serving the violence,” Kurmey described.
