Why Small-town Alberta Was Perfect For Filming Jason Reitman's ...

Advertisement oopStory continues belowThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Skip to Content Cut through the noise. Make Calgary Herald your preferred source for trusted news. Set up now >> Cut through the noise. Make Calgary Herald your preferred source for trusted news. Set up now >> Subscribe $0.50 per week Search calgaryherald.com Perform search

• Subscribe
  • FAQ
  • My Account
  • Manage My Subscription
• News
  • Local News
    • Crime
  • Politics
  • True Crime
  • National
  • World
  • Weather
  • Archives
• Business
  • Energy
  • Local Business
  • Real Estate
    • First-Time Homebuyers
  • Commercial Real Estate
  • FP Markets
  • FP Headlines
  • FP Money
  • Technology
    • Gaming
    • Science
    • Space
  • Small Business
  • Alberta's Top Employers
• Sports
  • Calgary Flames
    • NHL
    • PWHL
    • More Hockey
  • Calgary Stampeders
    • CFL
    • NFL
  • Calgary Cavalry
  • Calgary Roughnecks
  • Spruce Meadows
  • Soccer
    • International Soccer
    • MLS
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Golf
    • Golf Videos
  • Curling
  • Rodeo-Chucks
  • Tennis
  • Auto Racing
• Opinion
  • Columnists
  • Letters
  • Editorials
  • Send us an Opinion Column or Letter
• Arts
  • Local Arts
  • Movies
    • Movie Listings
  • Television
    • TV Listings
  • Theatre
  • Music
  • Celebrity
  • Books
• Life
  • Health
    • Women
    • Men
    • Sexual Health
    • Diet & Fitness
    • Family & Child
  • Special Sections
    • CALGARY HOME + GARDEN SHOW
    • Encore Lifestyles
  • Food
  • Homes
    • New Homes
    • Condos
    • Rec Properties
    • Calgary Homes & Design
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • Parenting
  • Relationships
  • Advice
  • Horoscopes
  • Royals
  • Travel
    • Ski & Snowboard
    • Travel Alberta
    • Travel Canada
    • Travel USA
    • Travel International
    • Cruises
    • Travel Essentials
  • Savings
  • Contests
  • Readers' Choice
• Lives Told
• Tails Told
• Shopping
• Calgary Herald Store
• Upcoming Events
• Newsletters
• Puzzmo
• Diversions
  • Puzzles
    • New York Times Crossword
  • Comics
• Driving
  • Vehicle Research
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Gear Guide
• Vitality Alberta
  • Work Well
• ePaper
• Obituaries
  • Browse Notices
  • Place an Obituary
  • Place an In Memoriam
• Classifieds
  • Browse Listings
  • Place an Ad
  • Business Card Directory
  • Celebrations
  • Real Estate Marketplace
  • Pet Posts & Adoptions
  • Working
  • This Week's Flyers
• Business Ads
• Advertising
  • Advertising With Us
  • Advertising Solutions
  • Postmedia Ad Manager
  • Sponsorship Requests
• Manage Print Subscription

• Profile
• Settings
• My Subscriptions
• Saved Articles
• My Offers
• Newsletters
• Customer Service
• FAQ
• Sign Out

• News
• Business
• Sports
• Opinion
• Arts
• Life
• Shopping
• Upcoming Events
• Newsletters
• Puzzmo
• Driving
• ePaper
• Obituaries
• Classifieds
• Business Ads
• Manage Print Subscription

Advertisement 1This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Breadcrumb Trail Links

1. Home
2. Movies

Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.

Article content

For a short period in the summer of 2019, a tiny coffee shop in the small Alberta town of Crossfield became a key meeting place between Hollywood and the locals.

Sign In or Create an Account

Email AddressContinueor View more offersArticle content

Early in the morning, members of the crew who were in town shooting Ghostbusters: Afterlife would descend on The Side Street Cafe on Nanton Avenue to meet with the town folk. The cafe does appear briefly in the film. But more importantly for those shooting the mega-budgeted production, it became a place for reliable intel.

Article contentWe apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, ortap here to see other videos from our team.Article contentArticle content

“We’d go there at 7 o’clock in the morning and meet all the local farmers who would come,” says Bruce Brownstein, supervising location manager for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. “There would be 10 guys at one table and their wives at another. We’d have our list of questions: ‘Who owns this property?’ ‘What do you think of this or that?’ ‘Would this crop grow in this place do you think, or should we grow something else?’ ”

Article contentNoon News Roundup

Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features.

• There was an error, please provide a valid email address.

Sign Up

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

Thanks for signing up!

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Noon News Roundup will soon be in your inbox.

Interested in more newsletters? Browse here.

Article content

Crossfield is just one of many Alberta small towns, hamlets and rural areas that can be seen in the film, which opened this week. Shot in the summer and fall of 2019, the production used sound stages at the Calgary Film Centre for some interior shots and a Wal-Mart in the city’s northeast. But, for the most part, the look of the film is defined by some of the province’s most distinct, non-mountainous and non-urban settings: the vast canyons in the Badlands near Drumheller, the rolling foothills near Turner Valley, massive blue skies and the quaint small-town streetscapes of Fort Macleod and Crossfield.

Article contentArticle content

Article content

Afterlife is writer-director Jason Reitman’s continuation of the franchise his father Ivan started with the 1984 classic. The film is meant to be a love letter to the original. But one of the ways the younger Reitman makes it his own is by flipping the setting from New York City to small-town Oklahoma. The story involves Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), the daughter of departed ghostbuster Dr. Egon Spengler (played by the late Harold Ramis), dragging her kids Phoebe and Trevor (McKenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard) to Summerville, Okla. That’s the dead-end town where Egon lived out his post-ghostbusting life as an eccentric recluse in a creepy farmhouse. After his death, the family spends the summer in the small Oklahoma town and his grandkids uncover his past adventures hunting ghouls and how it relates to the strange happenings that seem to be overtaking Summerville. While the look and feel of the original was defined by iconic locales in the Big Apple and the chaos those otherworldly menaces caused in a crowded modern metropolis, Reitman’s look is defined by wide open spaces, winding country roads, lonely grain elevators, rickety bridges and small towns that seem from another era. These were all things Alberta could offer.

Advertisement 1This advertisement has not loaded yet.Trending

1. Three Calgarians arrested and over $2.3 million worth of fentanyl seized in interprovincial drug trafficking investigation

   News

2. Buyer's market for Calgary apartments due to oversupply, detached home market tight says CREB

   News

Advertisement 2AdvertisementThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Article content

“(Production designer Francois Audouy) and Jason wanted everything to be of an indeterminate period,” says Brownstein. “We wanted it to look like a timepiece that is not rooted in a particular year. We didn’t want any vehicles or background that was too new. We wanted it to look like it had a life that could span 30 years, (where the) grandfather as a ghostbuster could have walked down the same street and it wouldn’t have looked any different.”

Article content

Reitman apparently scouted New Mexico and Oklahoma among other locations before his father, who was also a producer on Afterlife, suggested he try Alberta. It was Reitman’s first time shooting here and he was quickly won over by its charms.

Article content

Article content

“It’s a movie that is rural,” he said during a talk in September 2019 at the Calgary International Film Festival. “It takes place on a farm and it’s absolutely stunning here.”

Article content

Of course, filming in small towns and rural areas has its challenges. Location scouts covered 320 square kilometres of Foothills County, driving up and down dusty roads looking for the right spot to build that creepy farmhouse. The movie also calls for a throw-back drive-in diner with roller-skating waitresses. Brownstein said production eventually transformed a “weird old cafe/garage on the corner” in the village of Beiseker into the set, but he initially had a hard time finding out who owned the property. Scouts “doggedly went after this property, finding out who owned it and how we get to could rent it” before cleaning out 30 years’ worth of debris and turning it into the set-piece.

Article contentArticle content

“It was a huge effort,” Brownstein says.

Article content

But other locations were perfect just the way they were. Brownstein recalls scouting for the film’s high school with Reitman when they came across W.G. Murdoch in Crossfield.

Article content

“We stood outside waiting for school to end and the kids to leave so we could go inside and look,” Brownstein says. “Jason says ‘Look at the parking lot.’ It’s a gravel parking lot and it was full of old beaters and pickup trucks and hand-me-down farm vehicles that these kids drive back and forth to school. He said ‘This is perfect. This is it. These are the people that are in this movie.’ ”

Article content

“The funny thing is, after we filmed, they paved over the parking lot and thereby changed the character altogether,” he adds.

Article content

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is now in theatres.

Article contentArticle contentShare this article in your social network

• 
• 
• 
• 
• Share this Story : Calgary Herald
  • Copy Link
  • Email
  • X
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr

CommentsYou must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.Create an AccountSign inJoin the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Featured Local SavingsNotice for the Postmedia Network

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

OK

You've reached the 20 article limit.

You can manage saved articles in your account.

Subscribe $0.50 per week

and save up to 100 articles!

Looks like you've reached your saved article limit!

You can manage your saved articles in your account and clicking the X located at the bottom right of the article.