The area around Ashcroft and Cache Creek has long been popular with filmmakers, and the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission (TNFC) has just announced that another film has wrapped after shooting in locations around the region.
The TNFC is also hoping to arrange public screenings for a film that was 100 per cent shot in the region. Get Fast — a sequel to the 2022 film Bullet Proof, which filmed extensively in Ashcroft and Cache Creek — is being released on streaming platforms on Nov. 15, and TNFC film commissioner Terri Hadwin says she is in talks with the filmmakers.
“I’m talking with them about getting a couple of screenings, one in Cache Creek and one in Kamloops. I’ll also be inviting the filmmakers to have a panel afterwards for people to ask questions about the project.”
James Clayton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Bullet Proof, about a thief who gets on the wrong side of a sadistic mafia boss after stealing millions of dollars from him. A shootout at the Tumbleweed Motel in Cache Creek, and a car chase through the streets of Ashcroft, were two of many scenes filmed in the area.
“The same character [Clayton played] is back in Get Fast, which also stars Lou Diamond Phillips,” says Hadwin. “There are some cool, high-octane action scenes, a semi-trailer crash near Logan Lake, scenes shot at the Cache Creek airstrip and the Sandman Hotel in Cache Creek, and in landscapes around Skeetchestn, as well as scenes filmed in and around Kamloops.”
The feature film Lunar Sway, written and directed by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Nick Butler and partially funded by Telefilm Canada, began filming in the Thompson-Nicola region in early September and recently wrapped. It’s a dark comedy centring on the resident of a small desert town who is struggling with his love life when he unexpectedly reconnects with his estranged birth mother. After learning of his mom’s string of secrets, he’s led on a wild misadventure.
The Oasis Hotel and Pub, BN Dulay’s warehouse bays, and the Desert Inn in Cache Creek, as well as the Vulture Garage and the Baits Motel in Spences Bridge, were used as film locations, as were several properties in and around Ashcroft.
“Working with Nick Butler has been a dream,” says Hadwin. “He has been very hands-on, knows what he is looking for, and it was exciting to see him discover the locations that would later be used in his film. He felt comfortable asking a lot of questions which really helped me to hone in on what he was hoping to achieve, so that I could do my best to support him.”
Butler is also pleased about how the process went. “Terri has been an invaluable, ongoing support system for our production. She helped us find breathtaking locations in the Thompson-Nicola area that will add so much to our movie. Shooting here has been an incredible experience.”
While some people might have noticed the Lunar Sway crew working in the area, Hadwin says there’s a reason why the TNFC doesn’t usually publicize film shoots in the region until they are finished.
“Productions can sometimes be interrupted if too many people are aware of what it is they’re doing. Usually it’s not out of ill-intent — people are just curious — but sometimes there are crazed fans, or individuals who are honking their horns while driving by and causing interruptions.
“For the most part, productions like to go about their business and do their work with as few people being in the know as possible. They’ll usually reach out to the film commission and the community, to get the necessary permits, or to a fire department or RCMP or people who need to be in the know, but they prefer the public not to know until they’ve moved on.”
She adds that some projects really are top secret. “They’ll ask people like me to sign a non-disclosure agreement. They put a lot of money into their marketing plan, and they like to release information [about the project] when and how they want it to be released. They don’t want someone else muddying the water and detracting from what they’d like their messaging to be.”
She shares that there have been four different projects filming in the Ashcroft/Cache Creek area in the last few weeks. “It’s great that we’ve been used a lot. And we’ve had some scouts out there lately, and that’s looking positive.”
Hadwin says that the team behind Lunar Sway fell in love with the area. “They couldn’t believe that I could provide them with almost every location they needed. And they didn’t mind me talking about it and were fine with that, so I could go around the community talking openly about what the project was, which makes my job a lot easier.”
Lunar Sway is expected to be released in theatres in late 2025.
