From decking the house with twinkling lights to hanging up stockings beside the tree, the Christmas season is filled with cherished traditions we repeat year-after-year.
And for many of us, that includes curling up on the sofa munching a bowl of popcorn or sipping a glass of wine and scrolling through a list of romantic holiday flicks.
White Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas are classic stand-bys. But if you’re searching for a just released made-for-TV romance with ties to Alberta, check out Meet Me At the Christmas Train Parade.
After all, who can resist catching a glimpse of Fort Edmonton Park’s train, a 1919 Baldwin Locomotive 107, all lit up looking like a Thomas Kincaid painting?
Produced by Edmonton’s Northern Gateway Films, the movie company specializes in immersive cinematic technology using 3D, virtual and extended reality.
While most of the cast is regional, director Dylan Pearce recruited Emma Johnson (Charlotte, the current town mayor), and Ryan Northcott (Zachary Gregory aka Mr. G, the teacher), as the charming romantic leads.
St. Albert’s own Maureen Rooney (Soul’s Road, Bad Orphan, Making Beauty) tackles the role of Grandma Kathy, a retired town mayor and loving but no-nonsense matriarch.
“The movie is beautiful. I thought it looked like a beautiful Christmas card. It had a clear storyline, and it was heart-warming. It had all the ingredients of a good movie, and it was better than some I’ve watched. What really brought it up was the scenery. And the joy we had in shooting comes across. We had so much fun, and it was so cohesive,” said Rooney.
Set in snow-capped mountains, Charlotte’s young son Benny (Max Jones) learns of an old tradition about a Christmas train that linked four towns during the holiday season. The fictionalized towns were friendly and took turns decorating the train and parading it to each other’s snow-bound communities. But small-town politics and inflated egos pushed the tradition off its tracks.
Benny tries to persuade his mother, the new town mayor, to reignite the old Christmas magic that connected the neighbouring towns. He even enlists the help of Mr. G.
Getting the old train out of storage is challenging. But throw in a greedy Governor who is more inclined towards real estate development, and Benny needs a dose of celestial magic to make his wish come true.
However, the real wizardry comes through movie magic. Although set in a fictionalized mountain range, the actors were filmed at Fort Edmonton Park, Snow Valley, Spruce Grove and at several Villeneuve acreages in the spring of 2023.
About 60 people worked on the movie, primarily behind the scenes. Prior to filming regional locations, director Dylan Pearce and his tech crew travelled to Jasper in winter and recorded mountainous territory later seamlessly integrated with actors’ scenes.
Instead of using a green wall behind actors while filming, the budget-conscious company replaced the background with massive high resolution LED screens that projected hyper-realistic mountainous images.
Not only did the virtual world of LED screens reduce the necessity for large sets or distant physical locations. Actors could also see their environment in real-time environment, which helped avoid reshoots or additional time on set. For instance, out of a three-week shoot, Rooney was on set for 12 days.
In one scene Rooney drives in a stationary car but LED screens show a mountain pass in motion. For a different scene, a stationary train was parked inside Fort Edmonton Park’s garage.
“The train is on the tracks. On either side of the tracks are these giant LED screens that look like giant TVs and it's showing the mountains,” said Rooney. My jaw dropped when I saw how gorgeous the film looked. In my 40 years of acting, I love how things have progressed.”
In addition to Rooney, familiar local faces include John Hudson (Oliver, the train engineer), Sue Huff (Mayor Gregory), Michelle Todd (Mayor Spitz), Will Brisbin (Mayor Healy) and Chris Anderson (Governor Tufts).
Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade is currently featured on Amazon Prime.
