L.A. filmmaker to shoot movie in Glacier Country

Montana has around a million residents, but it holds the hearts of millions more who live outside of the state and hope to one day return.

Anna Kerrigan, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, is one of those people. She has spent years working on her latest film “Cowboys,” which she plans to shoot next year in the area between Columbia Falls and Glacier National Park.

Kerrigan grew up in Los Angeles, but had a family friend with property near Flathead Lake where she spent many summers.

“I fell in love with it and became convinced I would move there as an adult,” she said.

That didn’t happen, mainly because of the success Kerrigan has had in the theater and film career that took her to New York City after graduating from Stanford. After 10 years in the Big Apple, she moved back to Los Angeles to focus on the film industry.

In lieu of moving to Montana, Kerrigan’s dreams shifted to writing a film produced in the state.

Kerrigan began writing “Cowboys” when she moved back to California. She said she experienced a fair amount of culture shock upon her return to California and resorted to writing as a way to express and tangle with those emotions.

“I decided to really organically let some piece of writing come out from my fingertips without thinking about it in advance, and that slowly turned into “Cowboys,” she said.

It took about 18 months to work the rough draft, but she said she planned on basing the film in Montana from the early stages.

“It was always written specifically for Montana, for Glacier and Kalispell,” Kerrigan said. “It’s a really fun script. It’s playful but it has a lot of dramatic moments. I’d never written anything before with horses and guns and chases.”

Relatively few details have been released about the film, but Kerrigan summarized it like this: “A troubled but well-intentioned father tries to liberate his young trans[gender] son by taking him to Canada. As a frustrated female detective spearheads an investigation, she discovers that the child’s family situation is more complicated than she thought.”

Despite operating on a relatively small budget — Kerrigan estimated the costs would come in at under $2 million — the film features a trio of acting heavyweights.

Jillian Bell, who has spent much of her career acting in comedic TV shows like “Workaholics” and movies like “22 Jump Street,” agreed to feature in the film as part of an ongoing pivot in her career into more dramatic acting, Kerrigan said.

Steve Zahn, who acted in the films “Sahara” and “War for the Planet of the Apes,” has also signed on, along with Ann Dowd, who recently made waves for her part in the TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” and was also in the movie “The Manchurian Candidate.” Both Zahn and Dowd also played roles in the 2016 movie “Captain Fantastic.”

Right now, Kerrigan is fundraising to help cover the costs of producing the movie. She hopes to have fundraising done in the coming six months and begin shooting in Montana next spring.

To help her hit that goal, the Montana Film Commission recently chipped in and awarded Kerrigan a grant worth $50,000.

“The grant is for production,” she explained. “They want to see that the money is being used in the local economy.”

Kerrigan said it is often more difficult to find an experienced crew in places like Montana without large, established film industries, so the grant will be a big help when she has to pay to house workers brought in from out of state. All the money from the grant must be spent in Montana.

“In L.A. you can’t throw something without hitting a crew person, and Montana isn’t like that. I think the Montana Film Commission really helps with that,” Kerrigan said. “When you are shooting somewhere like Montana you just have to adapt to conditions.”

Kerrigan said if all went according to plan, the shoot would last about two months. In total, she anticipated about 15 to 20 people would be working once shooting begins.

After that, she said it could be another 2 1/2 months of editing, color correction and sound design work before she submits the film to festivals. She said she also hoped to air some screenings in Western Montana, and she would announce those details on her website.

“I think we’ll be pretty connected and communicative with the community and we can keep connected as we go on,” Kerrigan said. “I think it is so awesome to screen films where they were shot.”

More information can be found at www.annakerrigan.com. Kerrigan can be reached on Twitter @Anna_Kerrigan. Her website also contains a page where those interested can sign up to a receive an email newsletter providing updates on “Cowboys.”

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.