Luna's Loss Relived

Monday, August 14, 2006
GOLD RIVER, BC - Doreen Koob's voice quakes with emotion as she conveys the impact Luna still has on those who live and work in this picturesque fishing village and former milltown off Nootka Sound.

"My knees start shaking when I think about losing Luna. He brought us up when we were down," says Koob, basking in the glorious sunshine drenching the government wharf that overlooks Muchalaht Inlet five months after the playful six-year-old killer whale was killed in an accident with a tugboat propeller.

Koob, 64, was one of dozens of locals who reconnected with the endearing celebrity orca last week after being cast as villagers, tourists, fishermen, media types and environmentalists for Luna: The Way Home, a made-for- CTV movie starring Jason Priestley, Adam Beach, Graham Greene, Erin Karpluk and Tantoo Cardinal.

The film, co-produced with Vancouver's Screen Siren Pictures Inc., is a fictionalized twist on the story of the lonely and beloved killer whale that chose to live in the waters off Gold River after being separated from his pod in 2001. While the friendly young orca's antics delighted many locals and tourists, Luna rubbed fishermen the wrong way with his increasingly hazardous frolicking.

A tug of war ensued between the Department of Ocean and Fisheries, which planned to recapture the wayward whale, a.k.a. L-98, and reunite him with his pod near Victoria, and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations band, whose members believe Luna embodied the spirit of its late Chief Ambrose Maquinna. A deal was struck for a stewardship program, with the band given joint responsibility to monitor Luna's behaviour and educate the public.

Band Chief Mike Maquinna, who was consulted by producers during a two-year development period, says the movie is a continuation of that process. And like others seeing Luna again -- albeit as a mechanical whale -- the eerie art-imitating-life experience has stirred his emotions.

"I felt it when I started seeing actors coming into the community and I realized something good was going to happen," says Maquinna. "When the actual whale was here, there was education that was happening and I think this is part and parcel of this education."

While the film addresses the spiritual and political controversy Luna unwittingly ignited, producer Trish Dolman says it's more of a backdrop to a story about an aboriginal boy struggling with his identity and the band's new chief, Mike Maquinna, who is given the ultimate test of his abilities as a leader.

"It's a boy and his chief and a whale story," says Dolman, whose crews are also filming at Brittania Beach, Pitt Lake and near Squamish. "It's a family movie about how a whale came into this community and changed a lot of people's lives -- chiefly about how it changed Mike Maquinna's life."

Shooting in a remote location 90 kilometres west of Campbell River has had its share of challenges. They include finding accommodation for a crew of 70-plus in a town with only three hotels (many are being billeted), shooting on waters churned by afternoon westerlies and dealing with a lack of cellphone coverage.

Not that cast and crew are complaining about being cut off.

"It's great! I have no idea of what's going on in the world. It's a good escape," says Karpluk, in uniform for her role as Jill McKay, a fisheries officer who teams up with Ted, her bureaucratic colleague played by Priestley.

Having grown up in Jasper, Alta., the University of Victoria theatre grad and former Godiva's star says she feels at home in a small town like Gold River.

A bonus was learning how to drive a Zodiac and reuniting with her pal Priestley, who she worked with in the TV movie I Want to Marry Ryan Banks.

"We're calling this Jill and Ted's Excellent Luna Adventure," laughs Karpluk, who also gets to pack heat and wear cool shades as she bombs around the Sound.

"We're obviously working very hard but probably having more fun than we should. We feel like we're in Miami Vice."

One of the biggest challenges has been working with the mechanical whale -- a combination of a full-size replica and an "animatronic" head. The film's mid-sized budget prevented them from using a whole body animatronic whale, as in Free Willy, says animatronics supervisor Joel Echallier.

"They call me the Luna man," jokes Echallier, weary and sunburned (despite using 45 SPF sunscreen) at the end of a 14-hour day as he enjoys a beer and a meal at Odika, a restaurant specializing in "global and domestic cuisine" where the film's stars and crew have retreated most nights.

After studying footage of Luna, Echallier and his crews conveyed the orca's facial gestures from a platform submerged six-feet beneath the mechanical head. Through the use of remote controls, the whale's eyes, neck, mouth, tongue and blowhole move into action on cue.

"We wear it like a hat," explains Echallier, whose Vancouver-based company, SFX Studio, has also created devices for movies from The Chronicles of Riddick to Scary Movie 3. "We wanted to convey every detail where everyone will say, 'That's Luna!'"

Many locals and tourists have commented on how realistic the "fake" Luna is. "Some people even said they got disturbed by the events," said Echallier.

A day after working on shots of Luna being dragged into a net pen off the old Gold River pulp mill docks, director Don McBrearty was busy re-creating a native protest near the government wharf -- home to the MV Uchuck III, the passenger and freight vessel that Luna loved to swim alongside.

Beach, wearing a burgundy T-shirt and black jeans as Maquinna, and Greene, who plays a hereditary chief loosely based on the late Jerry Jacks, lead a parade of local native youths -- some with paddles, others chanting and drumming -- towards the water for a paddle to try and stop Luna from being led into the net pen.

The wharf is cluttered with telltale signs of a brewing confrontation -- brightly coloured TV satellite trucks, news reporters and photographers, watchful police officers clad in navy blue caps and yellow jackets, and environmentalists played by background performers such as Pete Beks.

"This is how you turn a biker into an environmentalist," jokes Beks, a towering biker with long, bushy red hair and beard who left his leather at home. "You put his hair in a pony tail and change his clothes."

Source: The Victoria Times-Colonist