Corner Gas gang has five days to rescue Dog River in new movie
By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada
Six years after Corner Gas called it quits on the small screen the citizens of Dog River are back, bigger than ever. Corner Gas: The Movie will play in theatres for five days before moving to television and then a DVD release, all in time for Christmas.
“It’s all very fast,” says star Brent Butt, “I don’t think it has ever been done before.”
The pace of the film’s release schedule may be accelerated but Butt and company took their time bringing the show from television to theatres.
“When we wrapped the series up the notion was, ‘It would be great if we could come back one more time to do a movie,’” says Butt. “We didn’t know if we could come up with a script that would justify doing the movie. It’s weird. If you are trying to convert a known twenty-two minute project that has a known rhythm and characters and try and make that live over ninety minutes it’s a trick. You can’t do that easily. You can do it poorly easily, but to do it well is tough.”
The film sees the good folks of Dog River try and save the town from bankruptcy by winning the Quaintest Town in Canada contest.
“One of my first thoughts was, ‘Will it just be like a really long episode?” says series star Fred Ewanuick, “because that would suck. When I first got the script, right away I thought, ‘It’s a feature script. That’s good.’ It’s still Corner Gas, we’re not going to knock your socks anybody’s off, and it is not this whole new thing, but it works as a film.”
“I agree with that,” chimes in Gabrielle Miller who played Lacey on the show, “except we are going to knock your socks off.”
The film comes almost six years after the one-hundred-and-seventh and final episode of the popular sitcom aired.
“It felt like we had just been on a really long hiatus,” said series regular Tara Spencer-Nairn. “We were all just a little bit older. All the men had to get their hair coloured. On the first day all the girls were in hair and make-up tests and the boys all went to get their hair coloured.”
The cast fell back into their roles despite the long break, but according to Butt this may be the last time they are all in Dog River together. “I’m a never say never kind of guy but the plan isn’t to do another one.”
But fans shouldn’t give up hope. When Ewanuick suggests another related project Butt’s eyes brighten. “Corner Gascapades? I could work with that.”