While local filming for the feature film The Tall Man wrapped up yesterday, producer Kevin DeWalt says West Kootenay hasn’t seen the last of the Jessica Biel-fronted thriller.

“We’ll certainly come here and do a screening for the community,” DeWalt says. “We like to do that. Wherever we shoot the movie, we’ll give them the provincial premiere for sure.”

DeWalt says he doesn’t know exactly when the film will be released, but producers are shooting for October or November of 2011. The premiere would likely be held in Nelson — the largest community where filming for The Tall Man took place.

Since filming began in late September, The Tall Man’s crew has visited several locations in and out of town. DeWalt says residents will recognize the mountains and natural backdrop captured on film, but some of their indoor sets bear little resemblance to the original buildings.

“We built a diner inside that gas station [in Erie], and the old Mount St. Francis hospital, we turned it into an abandoned mining building,” he says. “So we had to dirty it up and make it look abandoned. It’s what you do on a movie shoot: you kind of create magic and people will be amazed, I think, when they see the movie and how we transform these locations.”

Other locations for the film included Ymir’s main street, a trailer park in Salmo and a house the crew built on Porto Rico Road. The final days of the shoot saw the crew back in Salmo, where they filmed in the town’s curling rink — restyled into a prison.

With their Kootenay shoot completed, DeWalt says filming moves to Vancouver for a few days before post-production editing, mixing and visual effects work begins.

DeWalt says the film was welcomed with open arms by the community, and the positive experience he’s had will likely pay off for the area the next time a production company considers the Kootenays.

“The next time somebody scouts here they’ll be calling and asking how it went, he says. “It will be a positive review for sure. It’s been great.”

The Tall Man will follow Biel, who plays a doctor recently arrived in the run-down town of Cold Rock, as she investigates a series of disappearing children and searches for her own missing son.

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