Captain Canuck filming planned for next summer

Glen Schaefer in The Ottawa Citizen.

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann

Canadian producers are aiming to give 1970s cult superhero Captain Canuck his big-screen debut - and they're planning to begin filming the storied crimefighter's story as early as next summer.

Vancouver screenwriter Arne Olsen penned the screenplay after Canadian production company Mind's Eye Entertainment did a cross-country search for the right writer.

"It all takes place in Vancouver," said Richard Comely, the Ontario based graphic designer who co-created the homegrown hero in 1975. Now 62, Comely was living in Winnipeg when he and fellow artist Ron Leishman first conceived of Captain Canuck. Comely's creation is a Mountie given super strength - in the original comic it was from contact with aliens, but in the movie human technology has something to do with it.

Comely said producing the comic was a learning experience.

"I had to learn, I think each issue gets incrementally better," Comely said. "The first issue is a little tough to look at now."

Comely said it was Olsen's idea to set the big-screen origins story in B.C. "We use the city big-time, and outside the city as well," Comely said. "B.C. has the scenery we would love to capture in the movie - mountains, rivers oceans, forests, all of that stuff."

The producers are still putting the funding together for the project. Comely - who visited Vancouver recently to meet with screenwriter Olsen - said the feature would have a more serious tone.

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