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Sigourney Weaver ready to shoot film in Wawa

Copyright ©2005 SooToday.com Actress Sigourney Weaver, nominated three times for Academy Awards for her roles in Aliens, Working Girl and Gorillas in the Mist, is expected to come to Algoma next month to shoot a major film. SooToday.
GalaxyQuest

Copyright ©2005 SooToday.com

Actress Sigourney Weaver, nominated three times for Academy Awards for her roles in Aliens, Working Girl and Gorillas in the Mist, is expected to come to Algoma next month to shoot a major film.

SooToday.com has learned that a producer and location manager are in Wawa this morning, scouting locations for Snow Cake, starring Weaver and Alan Rickman (shown together in the 1999 sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest).

Rickman is Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films.

Shooting in Wawa isn't expected to begin until late March, and final decisions on location aren't expected until later this week at the earliest, but the script has been specifically written for Wawa.

This morning, Wawa Mayor Rod Morrison is escorting the scouting team around town.

'They love our Broadway Avenue'

"We're quite excited. They're very close to making a decision," Morrison told SooToday.com during a break from his tour-guide duties.

"The script called for a place with a lot of snow, and Wawa came to their mind," the mayor says. "They love our Broadway Avenue."

Rickman and Weaver, will come to Wawa to film the picture, Morrison tells SooToday.com, adding that the cast is also expected to include Jennifer Tilley.

Other locations that have so far impressed the location team include Wawa Lake, Lake Superior, the Queens Park residential area, and of course, the famous Wawa Goose.

The advance crew is also enthusaiastic about the Michipicoten Mission and the cozy fireplace at the Wawa Motor Inn.

Weaver plays high-functioning autistic woman

Snow Cake is described as a "quirky" drama set in Wawa in mid-winter.

It portrays a relationship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a brooding man traumatized by a fatal car accident.

Weaver spent time last summer with a group of autistic adults to prepare for the role.

"It's not about autism per se, but I would say it maybe tries to show you that people with this condition are maybe not that comfortable in our world," the star told one online news outlet.

The script is written by Angela Pell, a novice British screenplay writer, and the director is a 'indie' Welshman, Marc Evans.

Click here to learn how Evans persuaded Weaver to take the role

Producer did The Red Violin

It's a joint UK-Canadian co-production linking Niv Fichman, who produced The Red Violin, with UK producers Gina Carter and Andrew Eaton.

In a story published last week, ScreenDaily.com quotes Carter as saying that Rickman signed onto the concept immediately and sent the script to his Galaxy Quest co-star Sigourney Weaver, who took only four days to agree to participate.

"Anyone who has ever read it has really loved it. It's very fresh. Angela hasn't been in years and years of script writing courses; her characters have a type of innocence," the producer said.

Sigourney Weaver's three Oscar nominations:

- Aliens (1986) - best actress in a leading role

- Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988) - best actress in a leading role

- Working Girl (1988) - best actress in a supporting role

Weaver, 54, is currently starring in Sony Pictures' Imaginary Heroes, playing a tobacco-addicted suburban mom who feuds with her neighbor.

Sorry, but it's not currently showing at Galaxy Cinema at Station Mall or at the Varsity Cinemas in the Michigan Soo.

Weaver's acting job this month is in Every Word Is True, about Truman Capote's relationships with two convicted murders while researching his book In Cold Blood.

Her co-stars in that production are said to include Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock and Toby Jones.


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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