Following a successful kickstarter campaign Pogey Beach wrapped up shooting at the end of September. The Prince Edward Island based pseudo-documentary about living life on top stamps, and just what it takes to be king of Pogey Beach is now far enough along that they’ve released a teaser trailer.
The film itself is a reboot of a Just Passing Through in-universe television series. It’s a show within a show, but the gag has gained real world popularity – enough to raise $55,000 with their kickstarter. “We successfully raised $55,000,” says creator and director Jeremy Larter. “Without the Kickstarter campaign the movie wouldn’t have happened It’s a great thing for us at this stage of our careers. We have that direct relationship with fans who help us get something made, and they get something back in return. Making movies on that budget is a major challenge. If we ever do another Kickstarter hopefully it is to just supplement a much larger budget.”
Larter says that the film will roughly follow the same plotline as the original short: the story will center around the denizens of Pogey Beach after a father and daughter who have just moved from Toronto move into a nearby house. The daughter falls in with pogey bum Lyle and Gary who in turn both fall for her. Her disapproving father then hires a pogey narc who tries to trap them for falsified employment insurance claims, putting an end to their easy living. That and a case of the ‘Pines is just the sort of thing to keep Grammie Gallant glued to her rocker all afternoon.
“We just sprang [the trailer] on the fan-base yesterday without any notice. It’s always exciting and a bit nerve wracking to give people a first look but I’m glad we could do it before the holidays.”
If the available footage give us a good sense of what to expect, and with much of the original cast returning, the question is: how does the original story get retold writ large? Given a Grindhouse aesthetic, Larter admits that the trailer was a bit of an homage to his high school filmmaking hero: Quentin Tarantino. Naturally, the film features prominently the epitome of Maritime luxuries and super-cars: a 1974 Bricklin SV-1.
Even PEI legends Dennis Trainor and Robbie Moses, now famous for their roles as Terry and Parnell Gallant of Just Passing Through, figure solidly into the film’s cast. While a very angry, and very bald Trainor is obviously playing the role of the disapproving father this time around, Moses’s role as a frosted-tip pogey bum is still a bit of a mystery.
“It was [Trainor’s] idea to shave his head bald when we couldn’t find any decent wigs. When you see him as Winslow Lockwood it will be hard to imagine him as the same guy playing Terry. Quite a transformation. Robbie had frosted tips in his 20’s at one time so it was a natural transition. Paired with the bad goatee, he is a whole new man.”
The final cut of the film is expected to be roughly an hour and a half long, and fans of the series can expect to see the final product sometime in the first half of 2017.