OH NO, CANADA: Wyomingites were miffed when two recent big movies -- Brokeback Mountain and An Unfinished Life -- were shot in Canada. Both projects sprang from the fertile literary imaginations of (respectively) Annie Proulx of Centennial and Mark Spragg of Cody. If Wyoming is good enough as a stand-in for bug-infested distant planets (Starship Troopers), why isn’t it good enough for contemporary cowpoke movies? Now, Denver is set to be the setting for a major motion picture, although most of it will be filmed in Calgary, Canada. But according to Denver Post columnist Bill Husted, exteriors for Resurrecting the Champ were shot around Denver during the past week. One featured retired Denver Broncos QB and car salesman John Elway. Champ is based on a Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine piece by J.R. Moehringer, who was featured at Laramie County Community College’s “Literary Connection” in the spring. Moehringer is the Times' Denver correspondent and author of the best-seller The Tender Bar -- a terrific memoir just out in paperback. A Pulitzer finalist, Champ describes an intense, touching and oddly co-dependent relationship between an ambitious young reporter and a washed-up old boxer. Hartnett plays the Moehringer-esque reporter; Samuel L. Jackson plays the champ. Meanwhile, Alan Alda plays Hartnett's editor, Kathryn Morris (Cold Case) plays Hartnett's wife, and Desperate Housewife star Teri Hatcher plays a TV mogul. Lurie, director of the Oscar-nominated The Contender and creator of ABC’s Commander in Chief, changed the setting of the story from L.A. to Denver. The newspaper has been transformed into the fictional Denver Times, and newsroom scenes were shot inside the Calgary Herald. To Denverize the newsroom, every other wall is painted with the signs for the Denver Times, and Hartnett's desk is decorated with a Broncos helmet.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 1:28 PM