News

PRODUCER ANNE TAIT wins Lifetime Achievement Award from FeFF

Tribute to Anne’s career -  March 18, 2011 at the Novotel Hotel, Toronto. The Female Eye Film Festival’s Maverick Award for Lifetime Achievement recognises innovation, creativity and perseverance in the Film and Television Industry.   Award-winner Tait says “As a casting director, I have championed the talent of hundreds of women, and my film Iron Road has as its heroine a feisty Chinese woman disguised as a guy, who triumphs against great odds while helping to build the Canadian railroad.  It took us 10 years to get Iron Road on the screen and I hope this Maverick Award inspires other women to be tenacious in pursuing seemingly-impossible projects like this one.”

IRON ROAD Garners 4 Major Gemini Noms and a surprise WIN !

November, 2010 The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television has honoured IRON ROAD with four Gemini nominations in these major categories: BEST DIRECTION                             David Wu        BEST ACTRESS                                  Sun Li BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN         Linda del Rosario       BEST ORIGINAL SCORE                 Lawrence Shragge The Academy jury and voters chose SUN LI as Best Actress in a Miniseries – a surprise win for the talented superstar from Beijing. ANNE TAIT accepted the award at the ceremony at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto.

Iron Road Article in the Toronto Star - June 12, 2009

Iron Road goes to dark past Shakespearean love story stars Sun Li and Peter O'Toole By: Nicholas Keung For Chinese railroad workers and early migrants to Canada, the new movie Iron Road rivals in significance to what The Pianist means to Jews living with memories after the persecutions during World War II – both dramas give a face to those nameless and voiceless who perished en masse in history. Premiering at York University's Price Family Cinema Sunday, Iron Road does that in a Shakespearian fashion – through the romance between a young Chinese woman, Little Tiger, who, disguised as a boy, goes in search of her railroad-worker father in British Columbia a Canadian playboy James Nichol, whose father runs a company that builds railroad. The movie – with a budget of more than $10 million and an international cast that includes American stars Peter O'Toole and Sam Neil, Canada's own Luke MacFarlane and Charlotte Sullivan, and China's Sun Li and Tony Leung Ka Fai – is the first big based on that dark era of Chinese-Canadian history at the turn of the late 18th century. The events shamed Canada and forced Ottawa to issue redress and an apology to the effected community in Parliament in 2006. The movie title, a literal translation of "railroad" from Chinese into English, symbolizes the interface of the underdog lured by the "Gold Mountain" dream who ends up abused and exploited as cheap labour. The antagonist is a growing Canada in need of labourers to do the dangerous job of building a transcontinental railroad. "It's an amazing story of bravery and courage and a cross-cultural love story set against historical facts that many people do not know about," says producer Anne Tait. "It touches the audience's heart and helps them go through the experience. And you do that through stories, especially love stories that pinpoints the dilemma of cross-cultural connections. That's the way to show attraction and problems." The crew spent 31 days filming in "Chinawood," Hengdian World Studios, five hours from Shanghai. They also shot for 10 days across in Kamloops, Kelowna and Lynn Canyon, B.C. The beautiful natural landscapes are juxtaposed with human hardships – constant verbal abuses, inhumane living conditions, life-threatening jobs to set explosions to break ground for the rails and isolation from families and loved ones. Those human tragedies are painted subtly, with the close-ups of callused hands driving the spikes to secure the rails and the panning across the grave markers dotted along the railroads to signal the Chinese lives lost in the process. The hostile chants – "Chinamen" and "We don't want you here. Go home!" – that greeted the railroad workers are haunting. Tait, a Toronto-based producer and casting director, said she was initially inspired to make the movie by the Chan Ka Nin opera of the same title eight years ago. The music and lyrics imprinted in her mind's eyes "an image of a Chinese woman disguised as a guy setting dynamites in the rock cliff." She called her friend, scriptwriter Barry Pearson, to discuss a film story. Writer Raymond Storey was later brought in. But the filming wasn't possible until May 2007 with the feature's executive producers Arnie Zipursky, Tiger Hu and Han Sanping lined up, as well as funding from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Canadian Television Fund, Film Initiative British Columbia, Ontario Media Development Corp., Astral Media, Cogeco Cable Fund and Shaw Rocket Fund. So, is the movie a chick flick? "Yes, a bit," said Tait with a chuckle. "But an epic, historical chick flick."

Sun Li awarded Best Actress, miniseries, for Iron Road at the Roma FictionFest, July 2008

Chinese star Sun Li with director David Wu, accepts best actress award at ceremony in Beijing.

Iron Road Wins Four Awards

At the Leo Awards, held by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British Columbia: Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Drama -- Attila Szalay Best Production Design in a Feature Length Drama -- Linda Del Rosario Best Costume Design in a Feature Length Drama -- Maya Mani Best Make-Up in a Feature Length Drama -- Joanne Kinchella

Iron Road Wins Audience Favourite Award at the Dominican Film Festival

Star Charlotte Sullivan and Producer Anne Tait (right and left of center) at the 1500-seat Teatro Nacional with representatives of the Chinese Community in traditional costumes.

Photos From The Set

Just before the cameras roll, the IRON ROAD cast and crew hold a traditional Chinese ceremony to invoke good luck for production by burning joss sticks, and offering a suckling pig and other delicacies to the film gods.  Pictured are: Kate Luoshan, Arnie Zipursky, Luke MacFarlane, Peter O'Toole, director David Wu, Raymond Massey, Sun Li, Cinematographer Attila Szalay, and stunt choreographer Paul Rapovski. Sun Li [Little Tiger] with the costume designer Maya Mani (right) Peter O'Toole as the dissolute Mr. Relic with director David Wu

Shooting Begins on Iron Road

By Clifford Coonan, Variety.com  April 22, 2007 BEIJING -- Lensing has begun on a Chinese-Canadian co-production in China's Hengdian Studios, a love story set against the building of the railroad through the Rocky Mountains, starring rising thesp Sun Li, Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill, Tony Leung Ka Fai and Luke MacFarlane. Helmer is David Wu. "Iron Road" will be a feature pic and a two-part mini-series and will shoot in China for five weeks and British Columbia for two weeks. It is the first film in 22 years to be made under the China-Canada film co-production treaty. Producer Raymond Massey said lower production costs in China allowed him to do a lot more with the budget than it would in the West. "But the main reason we're shooting like this is because this is a natural co-production between the two countries. It's a chapter of Canadian history that hasn't been told and in a way it's our apology to China for what happened," he said by telephone from Hengdian. Sun Li, who starred in "Fearless" and "Jade Goddess of Mercy", plays a street urchin named Little Tiger, and is the character on which the drama of the whole pic hinges. Helmer David Wu began his career in China as John Woo's editor and among his credits are "Merlin's Apprentice", "Son of the Dragon" and "Plague City- Sars in Toronto". Pic was inspired by an opera by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell, and scribes on "Iron Road" Screenwriters were Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey. It is scheduled for feature release in Asia and Europe, and broadcast on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Network in 2008. As well as Massey, other producers include Anne Tait, Barry Pearson and Zhao Haicheng. Executive prods are Arnie Zipursky, Han Sanping, Massey and Tiger Hu. Worldwide distribution is by Alchemy and CCI Releasing.

O'Toole, Neill board 'Iron Road'

By: Archie Thomas, March 2007 MIP LONDON - Peter O'Toole and Sam Neill will star in "Iron Road," a television miniseries and feature film about the building of the North American transcontinental railroad. The romantic action-adventure sees a poor Chinese railroad worker become romantically entwined with the son of a Yankie railroad tycoon. "Iron Road" is produced by Mainland Productions and Iron Road Productions, in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and with the participation of the COGECO Program Development Fund. Further coin came from Shaw Rocket Fund and the Canadian Television Fund. London-based Alchemy Television is distributing in all territories other than China and Canada.

Steam Onto Screen

May 04 2007 By Laurel Smith, Staff reporter Kamloops is riding the rail to the little screen. In June, the Kamloops region will be the central focus of a CBC two-part miniseries and movie, booked to be aired in 2008. The $10-million Chinese-Canadian co-production, titled Iron Road, will feature several local areas and the historic 2141 steam-powered train. Iron Road, written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey, is the first Canadian-Chinese co-production in 22 years. The story, inspired by an opera by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell, is one of love and the construction of the railroad in the 1880s. Actress Sun Li plays the part of Little Tiger, a street urchin dressed as a boy, who falls in love with a railroad tycoon's son, James (Luke MacFarlane). Other stars include Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill (who will be in Kamloops during filming), and Chinese heart-throb Tony Leung  Ka Fai. There is the possibility of 65 extras needed per day for 14 days, according to the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission, and an estimated 30 to 40 local hires as crewmembers over a two-week period. Part of the movie will be filmed in China for five weeks, and in B.C. for another three weeks. Vicci Weller, executive director of the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission, has been scouting locations for three months for the movie around the Kelowna Pacific Railroad between Armstrong and Kamloops, Brodie Loop, and Razor Mountain. Kettle Valley Railroad beds, tunnels and cliffs were all inspected by Weller, who said that Kamloops is considered a prime location for directors and producers due to its short trip into the wilds of Canada and beauty of landscape. After taking numerous photos of locations, Weller uploaded them to a website for Massey and Wu to peruse. Brenda Pollock, operations manager at the Kamloops Heritage Railway, said some filming will take place onboard the historic 2141 stream engine.   Pollock said a crew of four will run the engine while filming takes place, and that there will be no change to the regular schedule. She said few demands had been made from the director, except that a few modifications had to be made to the 1912 engine so it would fit the look of a steam train in the 1880s. And he requested crewmen grow mustaches and beards and wear costumes to suit the role of railroad men in the 1880s.  "We're all really looking forward to it and we are really excited," said Pollack. The shooting time onboard will take six days, starting June 9. Anyone curious to see the train decked out, or catch a glimpse of the movie set, can still purchase tickets for the Armstrong Explorer. which travels from Campbell Creek to Armstrong and back.