Adam Beach hopes to bring justice to Canadian hero
Chris Wattie, CTV.ca News
Date: Saturday Feb. 13, 2010 7:30 AM ET
Just the thought of playing Canadian aboriginal war hero Tommy Prince in an upcoming film is enough to bring tears to the eyes of actor Adam Beach.
An emotional Beach, the Manitoba-born star of Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers" and of HBO television's Big Love, had to pause to regain his composure at a recent news conference announcing the launch of "Tommy Prince: Prince of the Devils."
"I'm going to be bringing forth a hero that I hope a 16-year-old will recognize and actually step up and say, 'I want to be a hero also,'" said the 37-year-old First Nations actor. "So that's where all this flooding of emotion comes."
The film, to be produced by B.C.-based Bay Film Studios, will focus on Prince's experiences fighting in the Second World War with the First Special Service Force, the legendary "Devil's Brigade," one of the most successful commando forces in military history.
Flanked by members of Prince's family and Manitoba aboriginal leaders, Beach said it was an honour to be asked to portray the war hero, the most decorated soldier in Canadian history and one of his boyhood idols.
"It's like I get to play a Captain America," he said. "I hope that I can put my heart and soul into someone that needs to be seen in that hero quality."
Beach hopes the movie will help fight negative stereotypes of aboriginals.
"History has created a timeline for our people that shows defeat, struggle, famine, residential schools -- it's left us with generations that are picking up the pieces," he said. "I want to introduce the timeline that has not stopped, that has not changed. That's our culture and traditions."
Prince, born on Manitoba's Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, was a hero of both the Second World War and the Korean War.
He was decorated by King George VI at Buckingham Palace with both the Military Medal and, on behalf of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Silver Star with ribbon.
He died in 1977 at the age of 62 and is buried in Winnipeg.
The Canadian military has signed on to help ensure the film's action scenes are accurate, and Prince's remaining family members have given the film their blessing as well.
Robin Webb, the film's screenwriter and designated director, said the impetus for the project was his anger at a 1998 documentary on Prince which focused largely on the years after he left the army and fell into alcoholism and poverty in Winnipeg.
He saw the dramatic feature as a corrective to the stereotype, as well as a celebration of Prince's astonishing bravery and heroism and found a willing star in Beach.
Shooting is to begin this year on the feature film, which will have a budget of at least $11 million, with a theatrical release planned for 2011.
"I can't make the movie much bigger, because you have to work the movie backward -- you have to know how much you can get for it," Webb explained. "And I don't want to do a movie and wind up not making its money at the box office. So I don't think I'll go over $15 million, by the time it's finished."
Webb stressed that the movie will focus on the wartime heroism that earned Prince nine medals and other accolades, and not on his later civilian life, during which he was troubled by alcoholism, poverty and illness.
"There was more to the man than just being an alcoholic, as the media has come out to make him," said Tommy Prince, Jr., a son of the celebrated soldier. "He'd be honoured with Mr. Beach playing this role -- and he'd say, ‘Hey, carry on, dude.' And that we will."
Webb said he wants Prince's human side to come out in the film, while Beach added he wants to highlight the soldier's strength and courage.
"You're going to see a human being. You're going to see a war hero like you've never seen before," Beach said. "What we want to do is celebrate his heroics, and show him as that youthful man who was taking any challenges."
The character Beach played in "Flags of Our Fathers," Ira Hayes, shared some common experience with Prince. Both were celebrated as Second World War heroes. Hayes was one of the American soldiers who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi in the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the photograph of that minor event served to galvanize the U.S. in the latter years of the war. Hayes was subsequently celebrated as a hero, though he felt his accolades were undeserved.
Prince, on the other hand, so prized his military experience that he re-enlisted to fight in Korea after being honourably discharged following the Second World War.
"I think Tommy Prince has his own unique story, just being Canadian and what that says about being one of the most decorated soldiers in history," Beach said.
Webb says the shooting of the film may begin in the late summer, depending on Beach's commitment to appearing in the upcoming superhero film The Green Lantern.
While the Prince film will shoot in Winnipeg "for the beginning and end of Prince's story," it may also shoot in British Columbia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
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