Jon [in CT]
10-19-2004, 06:54 PM
It'll be made in Canada for Canadian TV and seems centered on the Bricklin SV-1 sports car. I'm guessing there won't be much Subaru content, but I'd watch it anyway. Here are two articles about it. The first is from 9/30/04 at http://www.canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040930/DGLIFE12/209300634/-1/LIFE.N.B. company to produce film about Bricklin fiasco
SHANNON HAGERMAN
The Daily Gleaner
A New Brunswick film company is reviving the Bricklin fiasco in a new docu-drama that will feature the sports car founder playing himself.
U.S. entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, who convinced former Conservative premier Richard Hatfield to spend millions manufacturing the ill-fated vehicles, has agreed to appear in the upcoming film.
Their ambitious dream of building the "world's fastest car" in New Brunswick might have crashed and burned, but the public's interest in the 30-year-old story hasn't waned, said film-writer Chris LeBlanc.
"This car is New Brunswick's car," he said. "It was Richard Hatfield's dream of what New Brunswick could be - that cosmopolitan, that sexy. That's the vision Hatfield had for New Brunswick."
LeBlanc, of Tracadie-based Cojak Productions, was in Fredericton on Wednesday to put the final touches on the film script.
He met with Conservative cabinet minister Percy Mockler, who worked in the Hatfield government and has coveted the vehicles ever since.
The filmmakers will cast Mockler in their medium-budget film that will start production in November.
LeBlanc said the film will touch on the vehicle's history in New Brunswick, with a few twists.
"We are going to jazz it up, sex it up a little," LeBlanc said.
The film will also re-examine the Bricklin project that's long been viewed as a major boondoggle in New Brunswick politics.
Disaster seemed to follow plans to produce the Bricklin. The sports car's distinctive gull-winged doors were slow to open and subject to leaks, the headlights often refused to pop up and the body was subject to cracks.
Production was cancelled in September 1975, after only 2,854 vehicles were produced.
Taxpayers were left on the hook for about $25 million.
Three Bricklin SV-1s were since discovered in Halifax and purchased for use in the film.
The Irving family originally owned the three vehicles, which they used in the 1970s to market a series of company-produced tires, LeBlanc said.
The film, which has been named tentatively Plan B: The Bricklin Legend, will be aired on RDI and Radio-Canada International at a date yet to be determined.
[Click on link to view photo]
http://imgsrv.canadaeast.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CE&Date=20040930&Category=DGLIFE12&ArtNo=209300634&Ref=AR&MaxW=800&title=1
Robin-Joel Cool, left, and Chris LeBlanc, of Tracadie-based Cojak Productions, stand in front of the legislature Wednesday. The company is shooting a docu-drama this fall about the Bricklin fiasco in New Brunswick. Cool will play U.S. entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin in the film, which LeBlanc will direct.This article is from today at http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/10/19/Arts/bricklinfilm041019.html.Defunct Bricklin sports car makes comeback in new movie
Last Updated Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:28:50 EDT
FREDERICTON - As filming begins on a movie about the defunct Canadian-made, gull-wing sports car the Bricklin, the New Brunswick "legend" will roar to life on the streets of Fredericton.
Entitled Plan B – The Bricklin Legend, the film will strike home with many residents "because in New Brunswick you talk about the Bricklin [and] people talk about fiasco, they talk about failure," director Christien LeBlanc told CBC News.
"Thirty years later, this beauty is here with us. It's a piece of history and it's a symbol of the dream – the American dream – but built in New Brunswick."
Cojak Productions of New Brunswick plans to bring the mid-1970s story to life by creating an action-packed movie featuring period fashion, car chases and three mint-condition Bricklins discovered in a local warehouse.
The film will also feature a cameo appearance by American entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, the man who also brought both the first Subaru car and the Yugo to North America.
More than 30 years ago, Bricklin convinced Premier Richard Hatfield into backing his dream of a safety-focused, acrylic-bodied sports car. Though made of parts from Detroit, the cars were constructed in Saint John and were sold across the U.S.
The Bricklin never achieved commercial success and the company declared bankruptcy in 1976, leaving New Brunswick with a $23-million debt.
Actor Robin Cool, who will play Malcolm Bricklin when shooting begins in November, said the entrepreneur was "living every moment very intensively and saying there's nothing impossible – he's a dreamer."
"He met another dreamer. And both together built this sexy, fine car. This is Malcolm Bricklin. And the movie's got to be sexy like that," Cool said. "It's going to be sexy; it's not going to be politically correct."
Bricklin will play himself in the opening scene of the movie, which depicts his plane diverted to Moncton just following the Sept. 11 attacks, Cool said.
"So there he is, back in New Brunswick. He swore he'd never come back. And he sets foot in New Brunswick and his hell car – this wrecked-up, burnt Bricklin in some junkyard – wakes up and these pistons start screaming his name: Malcolm, Malcolm!"
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/bricklin_movie01_041019.jpg
Director Christien LeBlanc (left) and
actor Robin Cool (right) against a mint-
condition Bricklin.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/bricklin_movie02_041019.jpg
LeBlanc demonstrates the gull-wing
doors of the Bricklin as Cool watches.
SHANNON HAGERMAN
The Daily Gleaner
A New Brunswick film company is reviving the Bricklin fiasco in a new docu-drama that will feature the sports car founder playing himself.
U.S. entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, who convinced former Conservative premier Richard Hatfield to spend millions manufacturing the ill-fated vehicles, has agreed to appear in the upcoming film.
Their ambitious dream of building the "world's fastest car" in New Brunswick might have crashed and burned, but the public's interest in the 30-year-old story hasn't waned, said film-writer Chris LeBlanc.
"This car is New Brunswick's car," he said. "It was Richard Hatfield's dream of what New Brunswick could be - that cosmopolitan, that sexy. That's the vision Hatfield had for New Brunswick."
LeBlanc, of Tracadie-based Cojak Productions, was in Fredericton on Wednesday to put the final touches on the film script.
He met with Conservative cabinet minister Percy Mockler, who worked in the Hatfield government and has coveted the vehicles ever since.
The filmmakers will cast Mockler in their medium-budget film that will start production in November.
LeBlanc said the film will touch on the vehicle's history in New Brunswick, with a few twists.
"We are going to jazz it up, sex it up a little," LeBlanc said.
The film will also re-examine the Bricklin project that's long been viewed as a major boondoggle in New Brunswick politics.
Disaster seemed to follow plans to produce the Bricklin. The sports car's distinctive gull-winged doors were slow to open and subject to leaks, the headlights often refused to pop up and the body was subject to cracks.
Production was cancelled in September 1975, after only 2,854 vehicles were produced.
Taxpayers were left on the hook for about $25 million.
Three Bricklin SV-1s were since discovered in Halifax and purchased for use in the film.
The Irving family originally owned the three vehicles, which they used in the 1970s to market a series of company-produced tires, LeBlanc said.
The film, which has been named tentatively Plan B: The Bricklin Legend, will be aired on RDI and Radio-Canada International at a date yet to be determined.
[Click on link to view photo]
http://imgsrv.canadaeast.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CE&Date=20040930&Category=DGLIFE12&ArtNo=209300634&Ref=AR&MaxW=800&title=1
Robin-Joel Cool, left, and Chris LeBlanc, of Tracadie-based Cojak Productions, stand in front of the legislature Wednesday. The company is shooting a docu-drama this fall about the Bricklin fiasco in New Brunswick. Cool will play U.S. entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin in the film, which LeBlanc will direct.This article is from today at http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/10/19/Arts/bricklinfilm041019.html.Defunct Bricklin sports car makes comeback in new movie
Last Updated Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:28:50 EDT
FREDERICTON - As filming begins on a movie about the defunct Canadian-made, gull-wing sports car the Bricklin, the New Brunswick "legend" will roar to life on the streets of Fredericton.
Entitled Plan B – The Bricklin Legend, the film will strike home with many residents "because in New Brunswick you talk about the Bricklin [and] people talk about fiasco, they talk about failure," director Christien LeBlanc told CBC News.
"Thirty years later, this beauty is here with us. It's a piece of history and it's a symbol of the dream – the American dream – but built in New Brunswick."
Cojak Productions of New Brunswick plans to bring the mid-1970s story to life by creating an action-packed movie featuring period fashion, car chases and three mint-condition Bricklins discovered in a local warehouse.
The film will also feature a cameo appearance by American entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, the man who also brought both the first Subaru car and the Yugo to North America.
More than 30 years ago, Bricklin convinced Premier Richard Hatfield into backing his dream of a safety-focused, acrylic-bodied sports car. Though made of parts from Detroit, the cars were constructed in Saint John and were sold across the U.S.
The Bricklin never achieved commercial success and the company declared bankruptcy in 1976, leaving New Brunswick with a $23-million debt.
Actor Robin Cool, who will play Malcolm Bricklin when shooting begins in November, said the entrepreneur was "living every moment very intensively and saying there's nothing impossible – he's a dreamer."
"He met another dreamer. And both together built this sexy, fine car. This is Malcolm Bricklin. And the movie's got to be sexy like that," Cool said. "It's going to be sexy; it's not going to be politically correct."
Bricklin will play himself in the opening scene of the movie, which depicts his plane diverted to Moncton just following the Sept. 11 attacks, Cool said.
"So there he is, back in New Brunswick. He swore he'd never come back. And he sets foot in New Brunswick and his hell car – this wrecked-up, burnt Bricklin in some junkyard – wakes up and these pistons start screaming his name: Malcolm, Malcolm!"
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/bricklin_movie01_041019.jpg
Director Christien LeBlanc (left) and
actor Robin Cool (right) against a mint-
condition Bricklin.
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/photos/bricklin_movie02_041019.jpg
LeBlanc demonstrates the gull-wing
doors of the Bricklin as Cool watches.