WEB EXCLUSIVE: Paul Gross rides into town for the premiere of Gunless, his ‘Rigatoni Western’
Homegrown movie star Paul Gross welcomed his fans with autographs, hugs, his awesome baby blues and that million-dollar smile for the red-carpet premiere of Gunless at Scotiabank Theatre West Edmonton Mall on Wednesday.
“I think it’s a fantastic night at the theatre. Or day, if you’re coming to the matinee. Or morning, if they have a morning one as well,” said Gross, being playful with the media, and obviously pleased with his new Western.
“I saw (the final cut) for the first time in Vancouver the other day and I think it’s tremendous. It has all the big shape of a Western - it works like a Western - but everybody in it is cross-eyed. Its Canadian element kind of spins it sideways and sticks it on its nose. It’s like a ‘Rigatoni Western’ as opposed to a ‘Spaghetti Western’.”
Gunless is that rarest of cinematic confections - a Canadian Western - due to hit theatres this April 30. Paul Gross plays The Montana Kid, an American gunslinger on the run in 1882 who stumbles into Barclay’s Brush, population 17, in the southern tip of British Columbia.
But here’s the twist of juicy Canuck comedy: The Kid challenges the town’s gruff giant of a blacksmith to a sundown showdown only to discover there is not one other working pistol in town. (Hey, this is Canada, eh.) So The Kid - constrained by the “Code of the West” - is stuck in town until he can fix a pistol for his gunfight. Without giving anything away, it’s an experience that will change his life forever.
Among the ladies who queued up for a photo with the youthful Gross, the verdict was unanimous - he’s even handsomer in person than on the big screen or TV. One nugget of his advice to a young man who asked for pointers on an acting career was simply: “Have fun!”
In a pre-screening chat with the audience, he warned playfully that he’s become pretty good with his Colt .45, that he brought it with him, and that it was loaded - to deal with any sidewinders who failed to enjoy the flick.
There was no danger of that, however. Gunless proved to be a belly-quaking comedy which traded off moments of candy-sweet romance with heartfelt, life-altering dramatic tension, all thanks to the smart script and deft shooting by Canadian writer-director William Phillips.
All too often we feel we need to apologize for a “Canadian” film or judge it by milder standards than Hollywood fare - but not with Gunless - which seems destined to become a timeless, innovative addition to the Western cinematic canon.
Gross - whose star rose in the ‘90s as upright Mountie Benton Fraser in the hit TV series Due South (where he patrolled the mean streets of Chicago with his wolf Diefenbaker), and more recently as star/writer/director of the First World War drama Passchendaele - is a Canadian icon. The fact that he plays a notorious American bad boy is another clever shift by director Phillips.
Produced by Brightlight Pictures, Alliance Films and Rhombus Media, Gunless is a movie Gross jumped at when given the opportunity to star. Reflecting on taking the role, he said: “The lure of doing a Western is almost primal for an actor, and although the heat, the dust, my costume and makeup were uncomfortable at times, the whole experience was great. I got to ride horses in spectacularly beautiful country, play with guns, and play a gunslinger who has made his life with a gun and now that doesn’t apply - and he’s confused!”
THE YARN
When notorious American gunslinger, The Montana Kid, staggers into the tiny Canadian hamlet of Barclay’s Brush, life for the town’s 17 inhabitants is about to get exciting. The Kid immediately gets into an unfortunate altercation with Jack, the town’s surly blacksmith, which leads to the The Kid “calling him out” for some good old frontier justice - a showdown.
But in a place totally ill-prepared to deal with a classic gun fight - and without a single working pistol to be found in town - adhering to the code of the American Wild West may prove difficult.
Not able to let go of the “code”, The Kid remains stuck in Barclay’s Brush until a suitable pistol can be found for his sundown showdown, getting drawn into a strange world of eccentric rituals and characters. Among them is Jane, a smart sassy woman who becomes his only hope of finding a way out … or perhaps his only reason for staying….
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