After having traded a house for a movie role with red paper clip trader Kyle MacDonald, Kipling finds itself with the rare opportunity to have a Hollywood style movie filmed here.

Actor Corbin Bernsen of Publicmediaworks has committed to his part in the project, namely to provide the expertise and presumably to star in the production, using local actors in the cast and local workers in set preparation.

It remains for the community to raise the money needed to produce the movie, an amount estimated to be about $400,000.

To that end, a committee has been struck to form a company in which an interest will be offered to investors. A meeting October 12 attracted more than a dozen people interested in getting the project off the ground and two subsequest meetings have been held to determine what sort of legal entity is best suited to raising the necessary funding. (Glenn Kuhn was selected to chair the steering committee, with Teena Manns as recording secretary.)

The consensus at the initial meeting was that the minimum required investment should be a relatively low amount, but that investors not be limited to a single unit.

It is expected that a proposal will be released in the next few days. Mr. Bernsen plans to come to Kipling in early November, at which time the public will have an opportunity to hear details about what such a production would mean to the community.

It was mentioned that benefits to the local economy would include the short term jobs created in set construction and the production itself along with downtown economic activity during filming, thus, a certain amount of the budget will be spent locally.

Preliminary information is that the $400,000 estimated investment would give the local entity providing the seed money a 45 per cent interest in the film, with the Town of Kipling to get 10 per cent and Publicmediaworks 45 per cent.

This mention is intended neither as endorsement nor otherwise; simply a “heads-up” to watch for developments as this rather unique story unfolds.