SPOKANE – The filming of “Home of the Brave,” a movie starring Samuel Jackson and 50 Cent, is returning to Spokane under an agreement by financial backers to pay union wages.
Production trucks that left Monday for Vancouver, B.C., made a U-turn Wednesday after an agreement was reached with Local 488 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Technicians, representatives said.
“We’re very happy,” said Rich Cowan of North by Northwest, a production company that is doing the filming for Home of the Brave Productions. “We’re pleased to see the jobs and dollars return to Spokane.”
Three and a half days of filming had been completed out of a shoot projected to last a month; the flap has set back the production schedule by about a week, Cowan said. For example, he said, some rooms that were painted over for the filming and then repainted in the original color must go through the same process again.
Budgeted at $12 million, “Home of the Brave” also stars Jessica Biel, Brian Presley and Christina Ricci. It portrays soldiers struggling to adjust after returning home from the war in Iraq.
David Robinson, business manager for the union representing grips, electricians, camera operators and other technical workers in Washington and Oregon, said the filmmakers found they could not avoid paying union scale by going to Canada.
“I think they left town fully intending to shoot in Vancouver but, once there, they realized they couldn’t get a union crew there,” Robinson said. “The unions in Vancouver said, ‘We’re not going to work on this show.’ “
North by Northwest was not directly involved in negotiations Tuesday between the union and Home of the Brave Productions, Cowan said, adding that he did not know all the details but could confirm that the financing company had agreed to pay union scale.
Robinson said he was satisfied.
“Our goal is never to shut down a production,” he said. “We like to see people working.”
He added that for most of the locally hired crew members, “the pay increases will be significant.”
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