The Man of Steel will be heading up, up and away to Vancouver Island and the Vancouver area this fall to film what's believed to be the next Superman movie.
Casting calls and filming for "Autumn Frost" -- widely reported to be the code name for "Man of Steel," the next Superman film -- have already taken place in Chicago.
But according to a letter received by municipal council in Ucluelet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, filming will take place there and in the Vancouver area, too.
"Autumn Frost will film in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island from early September through to the end of January 2012," Rino Pace, locations manager for production company Third Act Productions Inc., wrote in a letter to Ucluelet council.
"We have been preparing the film since early spring, which includes building 'sets' in the various 'stages' in and around the Vancouver area..."
Pace said Ucluelet has the "look" the directors and production designer envisioned.
While in Ucluelet, filming will take place on land owned by a local First Nation and on a municipal street and the town will play the role of a small, Alaskan fishing village. Filming will also take place on the ocean and at an industrial dock.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have already announced that British actor Henry Cavill will play Superman. Cavill co-starred in "The Tudors."
A media release states the movie will also star Amy Adams, a three-time Oscar nominee, who will play Lois Lane, and Laurence Fishburne, an Oscar nominee who will play editor-in-chief Perry White of the Daily Planet newspaper. The same media release states Diane Lane and Kevin Costner will play Clark Kent's adoptive parents.
Already, casting calls for movie extras have taken place in Ucluelet and Nanaimo, B.C. Sought especially were older men and women with "character faces" and some "commercial fishermen types," states advertisements placed on the Vancouver Island North Film Commission website.
The movie is based on characters published by DC Comics.
"I think this is the first one to really plunk us on the map," said Ucluelet Mayor Eric Russcher, of the filming.
He said film crews have normally headed to Tofino, a popular tourist town located about 40 kilometres north of Ucluelet, but the movie company stated it needed something more that looked like an Alaskan community.
"We still have that far-flung look of a small community," he said.
Russcher said locals are excited and hope to catch a view of some of the filming.
Wendy Stewart, a spokeswoman for the City of Vancouver, said officials are hearing the same rumours that filming could take place in the city but nothing has come through the office yet.
"Man of Steel" is slated for release in June 2013.
