Ogopogo Movie Set to Begin Shooting this Summer

After the Penn and Teller Showtime fiasco, the last thing we need is another cryptozoology mockumentary. I hope that Provost Pictures – who are set to start principal photography at Okanagan Lake the setting of a film called The Beast of Bottomless Lake – are able to avoid the abusive pitfalls entered into by the producers of the aforementioned awful program that had nothing remotely positive or entertaining about it. The producers of the latest offering in cryptozoological satire have released a blurb about the film which incorporates this statement: “The Office” meets “Jacques Cousteau” with a little bit of “Jaws” thrown in for good measure. That is a huge claim so I hope the filmmakers come up with a film that is as good as they make it out to be.

In a similar vein, a couple of years ago, I saw a brilliant piece of satirical filmmaking in the hugely entertaining flick Incident at Loch Ness. The brainchild of writer Zak Penn, Incident was an incredible expose of the egos involved in a cryptozoological search of Loch Ness which was designated to be incorporated in a documentary. Penn enlisted one of the best filmmakers alive, the legendary Werner Herzog, the German director of motion pictures and documentaries including Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre: The Wrath of God and The Grizzly Bear Man, to play himself as he sets out to make the ultimate documentary about the enigma of Loch Ness. I recommend anyone who hasn’t seen this film to do so. It is witty, exciting and incredibly sharp.

The premise of The Beast of Bottomless Lake is an interesting one. The searchers are after the $2 million reward for proof positive of Ogopogo, and while searching for the beast, everything that can go wrong goes wrong. In the middle of all of this is the principal figure whom has a sighting of the denizen of Okanagan Lake, but cannot convince anyone he talks to about the incident that he really has seen this animal. The searchers are a group of academics led by one Paul Moran who apparently has lots of personal demons and this is compounded by having to work with a team of people who simply shouldn’t be in the same room with each other.

The filmmaker documenting all this is a bloke called Ernie and with the use of a wee spy camera he sets about capturing the prime moments when team members are off their guard or thinking that they are not being recorded. These guys are apparently told that they have been set up with luxurious accommodations at a high-class local resort, but when they get to the lake, they have the ignominy of having to all cram into the basement of Paul’s parents’ place. The farce continues when they bumble around on their research vessel and lose the brand new high-tech sled loaned to them by the mythical Royal Commission on Loch Ness.

To compound things their idyllic search is further tarnished when it is discovered that they have to share their research party with a grim wedding party. The rest of the ingredients in this curious mix are a member being busted for dope, obtaining actual video of the lake cryptid, betrayal and a lack of interest in the evidence the searchers have obtained. I hope the producers are mindful of the winning formula used by Incident at Loch Ness and do not resort to the recent lowbrow mockumentary tactics of others who have purposefully attempted to denigrate cryptozoology. I wonder just how successful this film will be as their budget is just $500,000 and that does not buy you a heck of a lot these days.

John Kirk About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998). In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur. Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC. In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.

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