EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s first ever film, Evangeline (1914), is the inspiration for a new feature of the same name heralding from production company Ocean Playground Productions.
Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, the story of silent film Evangeline centers on the 1755 expulsion of the Acadians, and follows a young woman separated from her fiancé during the deportation from Nova Scotia and her decades-long journey across North America to find him. It spans Atlantic Canada, the American colonies and Louisiana, tracing the migration that would ultimately give rise to Cajun culture.
The well-received original began filming in Nova Scotia in 1912 and is widely cited as Canada’s first feature-length dramatic film but is now considered lost. William Cavanaugh, who worked for Pathe Freres, and Edward P. Sullivan, who worked for Edison Studios, directed the film.
The new film is being developed by producer Brent Crowell, who previously served as a co-producer and director on TV series The Flash, a director and producer on CW-distributed Sight Unseen, and as producer on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated family film Lost Ollie (Netflix). The longtime first and second AD has also worked on films including Scary Movie and series Fear The Walking Dead. Ocean Playground’s first feature was Traveling at the Speed of Life.
The new adaptation is being developed as a “large-scale period production” and as an international co-production.
The poem Evangeline inspired multiple silent films, including another lost feature, the 1919 American film of the same name produced and distributed by Fox and directed by Raoul Walsh.
Crowell is repped by Innovative Artists.
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