VIDEO: Corner Gas: The Movie world premiere in Saskatoon

Cameras flashed at a private event in Saskatoon–complete with a red carpet–as actors Brent Butt and Lorne Cardinal took pictures with fans before screening the world premiere of Corner Gas: The Movie with them.

It was filmed over a month in the summer and is about the fictional town of Dog River going bankrupt. Butt said the biggest challenge was writing an 87-minute script for the big screen rather than a 22-minute script for television.

“With a TV show the characters are known, the stories are small, so you want to bring that along because that’s what people love about the show. But you also have to ramp it up a bit and make it a cinematic experience,” Butt said. “That was the difficult part; that’s why it took so long to write.”
 
He said having the premiere in Saskatchewan “just felt right.” It was also important for the movie to be filmed at the set in Rouleau, Cardinal said.
 
“I don’t think there was any place else that could recreate Saskatchewan, so I’m just glad it all worked out,” he said, adding it was great to have the gang back in Dog River.
 
“It didn’t take us very long to pick up our rhythms that we had before we left, it just felt like we went on a little hiatus for a while. So it was kind of scary but really great in the end.”
 
As for the future of Corner Gas, Butt said he plans on taking things as they come and focusing on the movie for now.

“We are just so proud of it and we think people are just going to love it,” executive producer Virginia Thompson said on the Brent Loucks Show on Monday morning.

“The point of the film…. was that we really wanted this film to be a gift to fans.”

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The premiere will also be a charity after local entrepreneur Bart Hunter shelled out $8,000 to the movie’s Kickstarter page to hold the event in the bridge city. A live auction and donations are expected to raise around $50,000 for Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation and the Saskatoon Community Foundation.

Thompson explained the Kickstarter campaigned helped the movie, which was on a tight budget, get more involved with the fan base.

“We thought, ‘well what if you actually allowed fans to be part of the movie?’” she said.

“Bart Hunter grabbed the big prize and here we are.”

Thompson added the movie might not mark the end of the franchise.

“I love Corner Gas and I haven’t had enough personally… I think the success of this movie will be a big telltale,” she said.

“We are hoping people will come out so we can do this again.”

The movie opens to the general public across Canada from Dec. 3 to 7. Thompson said it will also air on television later in December and a DVD will be available before Christmas.

With files from Kelly Malone