Buried in an article in Variety listing new additions to the cast of the eagerly anticipated movie on competitive birding, The Big Year, is a mention that Jim Parsons (from The Big Bang Theory) will be playing “the author of a popular avian blog.” Which blog? A real one or a pretend one? And did bird blogs exist in 1998 when the action takes place? And how cool is this?
Also, it seems that Debbie Shearwater, the west coast pelagic birder, will be played by Anjelica Huston.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
I knew Mike had been quiet lately…
Ha!
That is funny (the above comments). Yeah, I saw that casting item a couple of days ago and did not know whether to respond with skepticism or mockery. No, there were NO bird bloggers in 1998. There were barely listservs (BirdChat does predate 1995 and there was a CompuServe Forum…some of us remember CompuServe.) Add that to the casting of Owen Wilson as Sandy Komito (only about a 20-year age difference) and Angelica Huston as Debi Shearwater (age difference going the other way, though Debi is laughing about it on her FB page) and you have to wonder how Hollywood this movie is going to get.
Looks like they’re having a great time shooting it too…
In British Columbia.
I doubt it’s going to be even close to the book. I don’t think it has to be accurate to the book to be an interesting story about birding and birders. I have a feeling they are going to make it modern day.
It was a cool book and will be a hoot of a movie, it will be corny and over the top and we will all love it, even if everyone else laughs at us.
*sigh* And yes some organizations STILL use Compuserve.
Yes, the movie, “The Big Year” is being filmed in Canada. Angelica Huston will be playing the part of a seabirding female! She has black hair. I have blonde hair. Let’s see if she shows up with braided hair in the movie! Shearwater Journeys will host Birding Adventures TV on a Monterey Bay pelagic trip on June 25, 2010. We will be filming seabirds, and hopefully, blue whale, for the 20th Century Fox movie. My greatest hope is that shearwaters and/or albatrosses will feature in this Hollywood movie! Imagine that!— Debi Shearwater
Yes Anjelica Houston will have braided hair in her scenes filmed in Tofino BC for the palegic segment of the movie. The Attu section was wrapped last week with interiors of the barracks in Vancouver on a sound stage and the exteriors in the Yukon North of Dawson on the Dempster Highway. The extent that the production company is going for accuracy is incredible! I think all birders will be very happy with the outcome. The barracks for Attu was eerily familiar as I was on Attu in 1999 with ATour. Anyone that has been there will recognize the bikes and the terrain. The Okanagan Valley will be lake Patagonia State park in Arizona which is filming this week. Our last role model in the media was Jane Hatheway in the Beverly Hillbillies ( we can do better than that), the movie holding very close to the book ( the author was on the sound stage in Vancouver) and I think make birders look pretty cool. It is filmed in modern times with The Sandy character the only one changed from the origional. Lets embace the fact that we are mainstream!
I could not agree with Solanders more. From what I can tell 20th Century Fox is trying to be as accurate as possible, at least as far as the birds go. And, it sounds like they are doing well by the book. You know, movies “inspired by” books are never quite the same. My only hope is that they don’t lampoon birders too much. But, again, birders are going mainstream! This is cause for celebration.
BTW, I think Angelica and I are the same age!
I finally read “The Big Year” a few months ago and will probably read it again before I see the movie. Also, going to California in Sept. for Debi’s pelagic trip. The importance of the movie is to let non-birders see and hopefully understand the amazing adventure into the world of nature that birding provides to all of us.