OTTAWA — Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is coming to town in late March to film scenes for a big-budget science-fiction thriller at the Ottawa train station.
Gyllenhaal, from Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow and the cult thriller Donnie Darko, is the star of Source Code, a thriller about a soldier who inexplicably awakens in the body of a commuter and is forced to solve a mystery about a harrowing train bombing.
Duncan Jones, son of music icon David Bowie, is the director of the movie, which is budgeted at about $35 million, according to press reports. Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley is believed to be in the cast, although the producers would not confirm it.
The Ottawa train station will figure prominently in the movie and was largely chosen because the architecture of the building has a "modern, futuristic" look to it. A production crew totalling more than 150 people may come to the city for at least four days of shooting in late March.
The film's producers were impressed by the architecture of the station and how it fits the storyline of their movie.
Built in 1966 and designed by John B. Parkin & Associates, it won a Massey Medal for architecture in 1967 and was named by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada as one of the country's Top 500 buildings of the last millennium.
It's believed this is the first time a movie of this scale has been filmed at the Tremblay Road station.
VIA Rail spokesman Malcolm Andrews said the station will not close during filming.
"We just let them know what kind of hours they will be able to use it so it's not inconveniencing our customers or interfering with our normal train operations," he said.
The film will be shot mostly in Montreal, starting in early March. It is among a number of outside productions expected to revitalize the struggling film industry in Montreal. As well, it may help revive production in Ottawa, which also suffered in 2009.
Roch Brunette, head of the Ottawa-Gatineau Film and Television Development Corporation, said outside productions always help Ottawa's film industry and bring needed revenue to the city.
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