A brush with fame - Lucas & Coppola pass through Saskatchewan by train today... (1 Viewer)

[Keith Paynter]

http://www.canada.com/regina/story.a...-AFDCCA9C7A4A}
As part of a cross-Canada vacation by chartered vintage train, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and their families made their way through Saskatchewan this morning, stopping in Moose Jaw briefly (about 45 miles west of Regina, the provincial capital) for refuelling. A handful got advance notice on the radio this morning and met the train in Moose Jaw around 9:00 am local time, and while the directors did not step off the train, they were good enough to wave to specators through one of the coaches.
A nice way to perk up a cool, rainy August day for the locals, I thought...

 

[Matt Pelham]

I was hoping this post would end with something like "so here's a picture of me with Francis and George!"

 

[Keith Paynter]

Sorry, I can't drive that fast without getting a ticket. :b

If anyone was there this morning, a picture would be cool though - albeit a little difficult to make out I expect...the police were tipped off and had security at the train station in a big hurry.

 

[Mark Kalzer]

*ahem*

There's a lot more to this story. Lucas and Coppola are vacationing in a chartered train all across Canada. They left from Union station in Toronto only a couple days ago and have been travelling in it with their families all across the country. Now this train is one usually used to seat around 20-30 travellers at thousands of dollars per person, and typically stays over in the western provinces, but Lucas and Coppola actually managed to charter this train to come all the way to Toronto (With no passengers, adding to the expense) and pick them up. The two families have the train all to themselves pretty much. The newspaper estimated the cost to be well over $500,000.

Boy, sure makes us Canadians feel special!

 

[Seth Paxton]

The newspaper estimated the cost to be well over $500,000.

Hey, you guys just doubled your GNP!

We're Americans, we kid because the rest of the world doesn't hate you like they do us.

 

[Terrell]

Hey, you guys just doubled your GNP!

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Hey, you guys just doubled your GNP!

You'd be surprised at how lucrative the Maple Syrup industry is.

 

[BradyB]

You'd be surprised at how lucrative the Maple Syrup industry is.

Don't forget moose hearding!!

 

[Allen Hirsch]

My wife and I did a Canadian Rockies bike/train trip last year just about this time on that very same train (in a group of ~20 people).
It's a terrific way to travel - you see gorgeous scenery and eat extremely well, all in the ambience of very old-fashioned coach and sleeper cars. I'm not surprised the Lucases and Coppolas would do something similar privately (though dead-heading to Toronto is impressive, if not excessive ).
We did about a 400-mile loop in Alberta and British Columbia, starting and ending in Calgary.

 

[KyleK]

Does Coppola prefer film or digital? Maybe he's trying to get George to give up this whole digital crusade thing....well I can hope, can't I?
The Future - MaxiVision 48fps

 

[Terrell]

I hope he doesn't give up his digital crusade. It is the future. Though at this point, most industry professionals are so anti-digital, that when digital does progress to a point where it blows film out of the water, they won't admit it. They'll still shout the virtues of film. But that's a discussion for another time.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Clearly, Maxivision beats CURRENT digital capture and projection. But the frame rate point is already moot... current digital releases have been shot at 24fps because that's what current projectors project at, and film is a neccessary middleman. Digital cameras and digital projection can project anything up to 60fps currently... that's 12 more frames each second than the Maxivision system. Already, there is a digital camera out that captures images at 10k, over double the 4k that film is estimated to be at. (As an aside, Episode II and Spy Kids 2 were under 2k, which still looked pretty damn good) How long until the 20k cameras? The 40k cameras? Eventually, digital will beat film undeniably.
As for the train, I saw a show on it on the Travel Channel. it was pretty sweet!

 

[Keith Paynter]

This picture appeared on today's Leader Post story, but is much larger in print than from the webage. Wave hello, George!
Sorry aboot that!
Link Removed

 

[Seth Paxton]

Does Coppola prefer film or digital? Maybe he's trying to get George to give up this whole digital crusade thing....well I can hope, can't I?

Well, if SW Ep. 3 is shot in 2.00:1 then we know that FFC managed to get GLs ear on film in some manner at least.
BTW, a moose once bit my sister. No, seriously, she was herding mooses....
oh forget it
I wish I had 500 large to spend on something like this. Heck, I'd like to visit ANY country in this manner, but I'm sure the Canadian version is truly excellent.

 

[Keith Paynter]

BTW, a moose once bit my sister.

Seth, you've been sacked!

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Does anybody else think that Moose Jaw is about as cool as town names get?