Donald Sutherland’s production company, Martin’s River Ink, has begun production of a new, animated movie called Pirate’s Passage. Ottawa’s PIP Animation Service is delivering the film’s animation, which is slated to air on Canada’s CBC Television.
“Pirate’s Passage is a thrillingly exhilarating adventure, a glorious coming-of-age-story, rich in both imagination and history, in perception and truth,” says producer, screenwriter and star Donald Sutherland. “I couldn’t put the book down. It resonated with the clearest image of the man inside every boy’s being that I could imagine. It was life writ true and I knew Jim and Captain Johnson’s marvelous journey had to be seen on screen.”
Pirate’s Passage is based on William Gilkerson’s critically acclaimed novel, which won Canada’s Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature in 2006. Sutherland (Crossing Lines, The Hunger Games, Pride & Prejudice) and his partner and co-writer, Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore), will produce the film. Sutherland will voice the lead character, Captain Johnson. Peyton will co-direct alongside Mike Barth of PIP Animation.
The film’s voice cast also includes Gage Munroe, as the young hero Jim Hawkins; Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix, Memento) as his hard-luck mother Kerstin Hawkins; Kim Coates (Black Hawk Down, Sons of Anarchy) as ruthless local businessman Roy Moehner; Rossif Sutherland (King, Reign) as his bullying son Klaus Moehner; Colm Feore (The Borgias, 24) as Jim’s Uncle Robin; Megan Follows (Reign, Anne of Green Gables) as Meg, the Hawkins’ employee and overprotective friend; Paul Gross, Gordon Pinsent and Terry Haig. Voice work will take place in Toronto and at POP Sound in Santa Monica, CA.
Pirate’s Passage is set in 1952 in Grey Rocks, Nova Scotia, a centuries old town on the south shore that was famous 250 years ago as a favored port of pirates.
Eric Birnberg and Thomas Walden serve as Executive Producers of Pirate’s Passage, and Merle-Anne Ridley is Voice Director. Both the Canada Media Fund and COGECO Program Development Fund provided financing. Germany’s Tandem Communications is the worldwide distributor of Pirate’s Passage (except Canada).
