Howdy,

Getting back to The Big Year movie, there are some photos from the filming of it at http://bit.ly/cJWmH6 and http://birdersforum.com/index.php/topic,896.0.html (the second link has some of the same pics as the first, but also a few additional ones).

Much of the filming -- principal photography for those of you in the biz -- was done in B.C., and these photos are from Squamish, but if you look closely, you'll see there's a WA State Ferry sign in the background of some of them, along with another one with "Anacortes Marina" on it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Washington ferries don't go to Squamish (unless it's for some connecting service), I'm assuming that place is a stand-in for Anacortes, though I think that would be an odd place to start a pelagic. (You'll see in the photos that there's a boat, hence my assumption that it involves a pelagic. This scene will probably have footage filmed this past summer during a Shearwater Journeys pelagic as well.)

I haven't heard for sure, but I think the movie is based on the book but not a strict adaptation. I don't think the main characters will have the same names as the real people in the book. I've read that Angelica Houston is playing Debi Shearwater but won't be called Debi Shearwater, and Jim Parsons (Sheldon from "The Big Bang") is playing a blogger. Since blogs were very new in 1998, this seems to be a character added to modernize the story. And getting really picky, Steve Martin is running around with some new Swarovskis....Anyway, it would probably be easier to just wait to see the movie next year rather than sit here and make guesses. :)

John Puschock
Wedgwood, Seattle
g_g_allin at hotmail.com
http://www.zbirdtours.com

p.s. If you're really into it, there's some more about filming in B.C. at http://bit.ly/9aKB45