Production appears to have begun in New York City on filmmaker Paul Schrader’s new and potentially final film “Oh, Canada” according to World of Reel.
The outlet points to an Instagram story posting with a video of Schrader with a camera filming and the caption ‘Day Zero’. The production has had a SAG-AFTRA exemption for months and thus is able to film.
The project is an adaptation of late author Russell Banks’ 2021 grim novel “Foregone” and follows a dying documentary filmmaker who comes to terms with his legacy.
In the book, the filmmaker was a draft evader who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam. Now dying of cancer in Montreal, he has agreed to a final interview in which he bares all.
The interview is being done by his acolyte and ex-star student and in the presence of the filmmaker’s wife and the acolyte’s production team – many of whom have long admired the dying man but now must absorb the meaning of this dark confession.
The film’s two main stars Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi were photographed last weekend during rehearsals for the film. Schrader has dubbed the project his “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” according to IndieWire and describes the film as “Canada being a metaphor for death.”
77-year-old Schrader himself has been battling health issues in recent years and had to shoot his last feature “The Master Gardener” with an oxygen tank. He indicated to The New Yorker in May he expects this to be his last film.
