Vancouver Sun

Hank Williams coming to big screen

Burnaby studio co- produces biopic of country music legend with Tom Hiddleston in starring role

- KATHERINE MONK

BURNABY — He died on the way to a gig on New Year’s Day 1953, but Hank Williams is about to be reborn on the big screen with the help of Vancouverb­ased executive producer Aaron L. Gilbert, Los Angelesbas­ed Brett Ratner and the thinking- man’s “It boy,” British actor Tom Hiddleston.

Hiddleston, the rising star behind Loki in the Thor franchise and marquee player in Jim Jarmusch’s recent vampire outing, Only Lovers Left Alive, will play the legendary country star who died of drug- related heart failure at the age of 29.

Currently titled I Saw the Light, the project will use noted music historian Colin Escott’s bestsellin­g biography of Williams as the narrative template and give veteran producer Marc Abraham ( Children of Men) a second stab at directing. Abraham called the shots on Flash of Genius, the 2008 feature starring Greg Kinnear as the man who invented the intermitte­nt windshield wiper.

“It’s a pretty exciting project for us,” says Gilbert, managing director of Bron Studios, a Burnaby- based production outfit that will partner with Ratner on the modestly budgeted biopic set to go to camera in Louisiana later this year.

“Tom is just incredible. He’s the right guy, and this is the right script,” says Gilbert, who acknowledg­es other Williams biopics have been made, but none has yet captured the cranky elegance of the music legend credited with birthing “white man’s soul.”

Gilbert says I Saw the Light, with an estimated budget just under $ 20 million, will be one of the biggest projects for Bron since its launch in 2009.

But it’s certainly not the first. Despite keeping a relatively low profile over the past five years, Bron has grown from a single shingle in the world of digital animation, where Gilbert has experience as a result of years at Mainframe, to a vertically integrated entertainm­ent company that includes stakes in financing and releasing.

Bron’s current slate includes Welcome to Me, the forthcomin­g Kristen Wiig- James Marsden movie; Tumbledown, a quirky drama about a widow grieving her folksinger husband starring Rebecca Hall and Jason Sudeikis; and Rudderless, the feature directoria­l effort from William H. Macy starring Billy Crudup and Felicity Huffman that won the closing night slot at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Meanwhile, sister act Bron Animation is current prepping an animated project called Henchmen, which will see production take place inside Bron’s newly renovated industrial space in Burnaby.

And if that weren’t enough to make Bron uniquely glammy in the great white north, the company just wrapped the Vancouver shoot of The Driftless Area, starring John Hawkes and Zooey Deschanel.

“I Saw the Light is a big step for us,” says Gilbert, standing in the corridor of his 18,000- square- foot studio, a one- storey stack of nondescrip­t bricks the company leases.

A decidedly exotic hybrid on the relatively barren tundra of Canadian film production, Bron’s business model avoids the two standard revenue streams in Canadian film: government support via Telefilm, and service industry support from large U. S.- based production­s.

Bron raises its own financing through a variety of sources. Gilbert also has a stake in Media House Capital, a debt- lending company that recently sealed a deal with Crystal Wealth Management, a privately held fund and portfolio manager based in Burlington, Ont.

Gilbert’s success in the button- down Bay Street corridor is noteworthy.

“Going through the regulatory process to get a mutual fund product approved was tough, but it shows we have the right team in place to accomplish our goals,” says Gilbert, a former music industry executive.

“Once investors became familiar with the gap- financing arrangemen­t — which is very much like a mortgage where we are the last money in and the first money out — we’ve been able to make them even more comfortabl­e … and offer returns on their investment upwards of 11 per cent per year.”

Gilbert says Media House is a separate company and he likes to keep the stream separate to avoid conflict. But in the big picture, they’re all leading to a common goal of building a solid financial footing.

“With our model, we’re not looking to hit the home run to make money. We just need to hit solid singles.”

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 ?? RAFA RIVAS/ AFP/ GETTY IMAGES ?? British actor Tom Hiddleston, above, will portray country music legend Hank Williams, right, in a biopic being put together with the help of Burnaby- based executive producer Aaron L. Gilbert, whose Bron Studios has been building a reputation in the...
RAFA RIVAS/ AFP/ GETTY IMAGES British actor Tom Hiddleston, above, will portray country music legend Hank Williams, right, in a biopic being put together with the help of Burnaby- based executive producer Aaron L. Gilbert, whose Bron Studios has been building a reputation in the...

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