The Okanagan will play host to a major film production this summer and country music singer Clint Black will play a starring role.
Okanagan Film Commissioner Jon Summerland announced that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will shoot Flicka 3 in the valley, with filming starting in September. According to Summerland, Fox will shoot the full production, starring Black, for five weeks with specific locations yet to be decided.
The original 2006 movie Flicka, adapted from the 1941 children’s novel My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara, was about a young woman who tamed a wild horse to show her father she could one day take over the family ranch.
Film Commission Chair John Trainor credits Commissioner Summerland with landing the film, which had originally been scheduled to shoot in Manitoba.
While Manitoba has better tax incentives, Trainor says Summerland was able to overcome that because of his connection to the producers, the great crew base in the Okanagan, and the Valley’s ability to offer low production costs.
Summerland said that Kelowna resident Elizabeth Scherberger, an assistant director on the project, first approached him about the possibility of the film moving to the Okanagan.