Trigger: aiming for a Toronto rock 'n' roll story
What might have been Hard Core Logo sequel got fruitful sex change
One of the most interesting things about Trigger, the story of two female rockers reuniting after a decade of estrangement, is that it started as a story about two men - men Canadian filmgoers have seen before. Director Bruce McDonald and screenplay writer Daniel MacIvor say the film started in a very different place, and easily could have gone in a much stranger direction.
It was originally written as a sequel to McDonald's Hard Core Logo, the 1996 film about a punk band on a reunion tour which starred Hugh Dillon and Callum Keith Rennie, as band members Billy and Joe, but hit a stumbling block as both men were tied up with their respective TV series.
“It was like, this is never going to happen with these guys. So instead of abandoning the project, because the script was great, we started thinking about alternatives,” says McDonald, the veteran Canadian director. “There was even a point where we thought, maybe we could have the Joe and Billy characters as two ten-year-old boys, and have them be a drunk and a junkie, and have it play out in the world as it is.”
“Which we thought could work for about 20 minutes,” interrupts MacIvor.
“But honestly, for a few nights, we were talking about it,” continues McDonald. “Then we said, let's make them chicks, right?”
“Bruce said that, and I hadn't even considered it. But when I went back to the script and said, ‘Okay, I'm going to rewrite these two characters as women,' it was effortless,” says MacIvor. “I just realized that this is the way it should be. There were certainly things that had to be adjusted, but certainly it flowed very, very easily.”
Starring Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright as Kat and Vic, lifelong friends who from a band, break up on stage and then come back together to work through their issues, both personal and substance-abuse related. The film is like a rock 'n' roll Thelma and Louise, and the fumbling friendship between the two seems real.
“When we realized that it was way more interesting as two women, then right away, we knew Molly and Tracy would be in it,” says McDonald. “We had both worked with them before, and they knew each other,” says MacIvor. “Tracy had always had a Patti Smith thing. She's played her in plays, she's a fan. So that was pretty clear that was where she would fall in.”
The film carries the emotional weight of two women in recovery, which was an important theme to explore, especially for MacIvor: “Some people said they should be on a bender, but we've seen that movie before. There was more tension in this struggle.”
But the film took on more as the tight knit local cast - Rennie, Sarah Polley and Wright's husband, Don McKellar all have cameos - and crew found they were working on what turn out to be Wright's last film, as she passed away after filming at the age of 50 after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
“There are a couple of moments where I see Tracy be incredibly conscious of her situation, in the moment, in the movie, in her life, and they all line up. Those moments are a little bit difficult,” says MacIvor. “But now we're focusing on celebrating Tracy and what she did and who she was.”
“Sometime it is tough,” says McDonald. “But I also love seeing it, because she's so funny. So it's nice to see her like that.”
The other thing that film definitely celebrates is Toronto, and in particular its music scene. The soundtrack is full of Toronto bands, and acts like Lioness and Hooded Fang get screen time. If it were up to the avid concertgoer McDonald, he would've shown more.
“I wish we could have had more in the movie. At the show we had eight acts playing, and really, we only showed a couple,” he says. “It's always a treat to put forward a new act, like Lioness, having them pop on the screen and people go ‘Whoa, what's that?'
“I guess part of me feels like I can give back a little bit to the music community, if I can get them on a soundtrack, or get some attention, film is great for that. It's a nice two-way street, and they helped make the film sound and look good.”
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One of the most interesting things about Trigger, the story of two female rockers reuniting after a decade of estrangement, is that it started as a story about two men - men Canadian filmgoers have seen before. Director Bruce McDonald and screenplay writer Daniel MacIvor say the film started in a very different place, and easily could have gone in a much stranger direction.
It was originally written as a sequel to McDonald's Hard Core Logo, the 1996 film about a punk band on a reunion tour which starred Hugh Dillon and Callum Keith Rennie, as band members Billy and Joe, but hit a stumbling block as both men were tied up with their respective TV series.
“It was like, this is never going to happen with these guys. So instead of abandoning the project, because the script was great, we started thinking about alternatives,” says McDonald, the veteran Canadian director. “There was even a point where we thought, maybe we could have the Joe and Billy characters as two ten-year-old boys, and have them be a drunk and a junkie, and have it play out in the world as it is.”
“Which we thought could work for about 20 minutes,” interrupts MacIvor.
“But honestly, for a few nights, we were talking about it,” continues McDonald. “Then we said, let's make them chicks, right?”
“Bruce said that, and I hadn't even considered it. But when I went back to the script and said, ‘Okay, I'm going to rewrite these two characters as women,' it was effortless,” says MacIvor. “I just realized that this is the way it should be. There were certainly things that had to be adjusted, but certainly it flowed very, very easily.”
Starring Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright as Kat and Vic, lifelong friends who from a band, break up on stage and then come back together to work through their issues, both personal and substance-abuse related. The film is like a rock 'n' roll Thelma and Louise, and the fumbling friendship between the two seems real.
“When we realized that it was way more interesting as two women, then right away, we knew Molly and Tracy would be in it,” says McDonald. “We had both worked with them before, and they knew each other,” says MacIvor. “Tracy had always had a Patti Smith thing. She's played her in plays, she's a fan. So that was pretty clear that was where she would fall in.”
The film carries the emotional weight of two women in recovery, which was an important theme to explore, especially for MacIvor: “Some people said they should be on a bender, but we've seen that movie before. There was more tension in this struggle.”
But the film took on more as the tight knit local cast - Rennie, Sarah Polley and Wright's husband, Don McKellar all have cameos - and crew found they were working on what turn out to be Wright's last film, as she passed away after filming at the age of 50 after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
“There are a couple of moments where I see Tracy be incredibly conscious of her situation, in the moment, in the movie, in her life, and they all line up. Those moments are a little bit difficult,” says MacIvor. “But now we're focusing on celebrating Tracy and what she did and who she was.”
“Sometime it is tough,” says McDonald. “But I also love seeing it, because she's so funny. So it's nice to see her like that.”
The other thing that film definitely celebrates is Toronto, and in particular its music scene. The soundtrack is full of Toronto bands, and acts like Lioness and Hooded Fang get screen time. If it were up to the avid concertgoer McDonald, he would've shown more.
“I wish we could have had more in the movie. At the show we had eight acts playing, and really, we only showed a couple,” he says. “It's always a treat to put forward a new act, like Lioness, having them pop on the screen and people go ‘Whoa, what's that?'
“I guess part of me feels like I can give back a little bit to the music community, if I can get them on a soundtrack, or get some attention, film is great for that. It's a nice two-way street, and they helped make the film sound and look good.”
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