X-Men producer Todd Hallowell survives Bixi, winter and 3 mayors while filming here.
SUPERHERO FILm will be released in May, featuring an all-star cast and local crew
Todd Hallowell has had a great time in Montreal. He’s been in our fair city since October — first preparing and then overseeing the production of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the latest instalment in the hit Marvel Comics series that is still shooting in town. Hallowell is the executive producer on what will be the seventh X-Men film when it will be released in May. He has held the same title for a slew of major Hollywood flicks, including The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13.
He’s tried our famed Bixis — “with limited success” — and loves our restaurants. He says it has been mostly a pleasure filming here.
But he admits he is a little surprised that the city has had three mayors since he arrived last fall.
He is also that rare Hollywood producer who’s spent the entire winter here. For the most part, Hollywood types prefer to work here during the three other seasons.
“I’ve been treated to a full winter in Montreal,” Hallowell said during a questionand-answer session I moderated at the recent Quebec Film and Television Council annual meeting.
“It was a bit of an adjustment,” he admitted. “I’ve never had my car radio freeze before. That was a new experience for me.”
And how’s your winter driving? I asked.
“It’s a bit spotty. I’m happy I’m driving a rental car.”
Filming began on X-Men: Days of Future Past in Montreal in mid-April and will continue through most of August. The film is intended as a sequel to both X-Men: The Last Stand from 2006 and X-Men: First Class from 2011, which was a prequel of sorts to the film franchise. The X-Men will be travelling in time in Days of Future Past, requiring young and old ver- sions of characters to appear in the film. For example, Patrick Stewart plays the older Charles Xavier while James McAvoy plays the younger version of the character. Ian McKellen plays the older Magneto, Michael Fassbender the younger.
The result of combining the two periods — the 1970s and the near future — is an all-star cast, with Hugh Jackman, Stewart, McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page and Daniel Cudmore repris- ing their Last Stand roles, and McAvoy, Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult reprising First Class roles.
“It was a bit of a scheduling nightmare,” Hallowell said, noting it wasn’t easy to get all these A-list actors in the same place at the same time.
Few plot details have been revealed, but we do know it is partly set in the early 1970s and partly 10 years in the future. One key scene takes place during the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, which ended the direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. That was filmed at city hall several weeks ago and “worked out beautifully,” Hal- lowell said. City hall stood in for a major Paris hotel where the peace treaty was signed. Richard Nixon is also a character in the film, though the actor portraying the former U.S. president has not been announced.
The filmmakers have been shooting at Mel’s Cité du Cinéma studios and on location around the city, and Hallowell, who has shot in Toronto and Vancouver, says Montreal by far sports the biggest variety of locations for visiting filmmakers.
“I find the locations are more interesting here. There’s more variation in the architecture and it serves the story better, especially in this case where we’re trying to recreate quite a few different looks, quite a few different areas of the world. There’s such diversity.”
He says there’s also something different about the crews ici.
“There’s a work ethic that feels kind of European compared to a lot of work situations in the U.S. The crew people seem to be striking a real healthy balance between work and having an actual life. And that’s something I really appreciate.”
He does have one quibble with the local crews.
“There is a tendency I feel sometimes toward over-staffing in certain areas, areas where there seems to be a few more people around than I’m used to having.”
But the thing that really bothers him after nine months in Montreal is this: “You guys can’t make a right turn on a red light! That’s ridiculous. Do you have some control over that?”
I try to explain that it’s for our own good because we have so many reckless drivers.
But it’s clear that if that’s his biggest gripe, shooting X-Men here has been a great experience.
“I’ve been treated to a full winter in Montreal. It was a bit of an adjustment. I’ve never had my car radio freeze before.”
TODD HALLOWELL