Last Canadian Soldier of The Great War...

Remembering how human beings can endure…

When Patrick heard that Jack Babcock, 107 years old, had become the last surviving Canadian soldier from the First World War and that he lived mere hours away from Vancouver in the eastern Washington city of Spokane, Patrick knew he had to meet him. An incredible opportunity for anybody to actually speak to someone who was there – a young soldier caught up in the excitement of defending his country, over 90 years ago.

Numerous articles had been written about our country’s last soldier after the death of the only other surviving Canadian veteran, Dwight Wilson – and although there was a lot of information to go on, Patrick wanted to hear it from the man himself.

Jack, although he tried, never made it to the front lines and in turn, managed to live another 9 decades. Destiny diverted him from battle and allowed him time to find the girl he would start a family with, have a career, serve in another country’s Army, and be a witness to history of the 20th century as it unfolded.

Patrick, simply found Jack’s home number, and called.

“Make sure you bring along your wife and baby.” Babcock’s second wife, Dot, sounded enthusiastic about the visit with Patrick.

Developing a feature film on this scale involves so much research, listening, learning, hearing stories first hand. Jack and his wife loved the idea of a social scenario, nothing formal: not a structured interview, simply conversation. They had recently been bombarded by multiple interviews from newspapers across Canada, so it was well understood.

Patrick drove down to Spokane with his family on a Sunday afternoon and they arrived at the neatly kept bungalow after a lengthy journey (multiple pit stops), and they were warmly welcomed into Jack and Dot’s home.

Jack was positioned in the middle of the sofa, while Dot sat off to one side. Jack was definitely not slight – thick white hair & solid as a rock with hands that enveloped Patrick’s hand in a handshake.

Jack and Dot have cats, which were an immediate distraction for Patrick’s son Kieran, and although watching Kieran chase the cats around the living room was definitely entertaining, Jack came back to Patrick’s various questions. Patrick wanted to be spontaneous and enjoy the moment, not worried about “getting the good stuff”. The meeting was fantastic with much additional insight gained into remembering how human beings can endure…

Life is amazing…

Two Special Days...

Reflecting on two Special Days…

It is almost a year since Nicolas Awde & Patrick Stark (Producers) signed Hollywood screenwriter Jay Wolpert (Pirates of the Caribbean / The Count of Monte Cristo) to write the film adaptation based on the highly acclaimed novel by award winning American Author W.D. Wetherell’s A Century of November.

Screenwriter and executive producer Jay Wolpert spent an action-packed two days in Vancouver to meet with Nick and Patrick to go over script and story points. The schedule was tight, but Nick, Patrick and Pacific Empire Corporation managed to pull it off without a hitch.

Jay was in for a busy two days: not long after being picked up from the airport he was whisked away in Company’s 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Limo and delivered to his hotel. Before long, Jay, Nick and Patrick were immersed in a 5 hour script and story meeting.

From there, Jay was transported to the Blink Media Works studios where he was interviewed (for a special presentation piece Nick and Patrick assembed for the project) by local EPK/Field Producer Marian Dodd (Entertainment Tonight), where Jay discussed the process of adapting A Century of November as well as regaling those ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories of his life and career in Hollywood.

Research is key to staying true to the authenticity of the film and the ‘when’ and ‘where’ the story takes place – so at Jay’s request, Nick and Patrick discovered an apple orchard to visit on Vancouver Island, very close to where our protagonist, Charles Marden made his home, and from where his journey half way around the world to find the exact spot his son fell, began.

It was a brutally early start to the next day in an effort to catch the 6:30AM ferry from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Nanaimo’s Departure Bay: once they journeyed across the strait began, they quickly lost track of the time. The voyage from Vancouver to the apple orchard became a tremendous opportunity for all of them to simply converse, break bread together and further solidify their plans to continue to develop the feature film A Century of November.

After a brief but informative stop by Nanaimo’s century-old courthouse, they drove 45 minutes south to the Merridale Estate Cidery, one of the largest of its kind in North America. Everybody involved was thrilled to be able to stroll through the orchard consisting of numerous varieties of cider apple trees, all from Europe and to take in the same air our characters would have breathed, experiencing life as they may have experienced it.

After some cider sampling, they drove back to Nanaimo in time to catch a 12:30 ferry back to the mainland and straight to the airport to conclude Jay’s two Special Days…

Another step forward in their journey from novel to script to screen…