Murder In The Cathedral (2014)

             What happens when the book is too short to make a good movie? Hollywood movie magic happens and Kelly McIntosh definitely created some in the 2014 remake of Murder In The Cathedral. With a star-studded cast including Lorenzo Callegari as Archbishop Thomas Becket, Amelia Cosco and Jacob Cuthbert as the murderous knights, the acting in this movie is nothing short of spectacular. Four time award winning and legendary director Kelly McIntosh brings life to this usually boring story and captivates the audience with her amazing creative choices.

The inclusion of a love story adds an element that most movies have bridging the gap between the audience and the movie. The second knight, Hughgina de Morville (Amelia Cosco), falls desperately in love with Archbishop Thomas Becket (Lorenzo Callegari) but since his loyalty is to God the romance is completely one-sided. This helplessly romantic and slightly unintelligent knight brings out the humor in this “based on a true story”, definitely putting a lot of emphasis on the phrase “based on”.   Calcostosh Productions backed the project to make it as realistic as a small town production company could. All of the footage shown in the teaser trailer was filmed at Porcupine United church, a poor man’s Canterbury Cathedral. While the set was exceptional for the Northern Ontario based company, the costume design was as authentic as it gets. Donated to the movie from the Porcupine United Church Sunday School Prop Department the costumes were amazing and push the movie over the edge into the award winning zone. Nominated for Best Film of the Year, Best in Genre, Best Female Supporting Actor, Best Male Lead and Best Soundtrack, Murder In The Cathedral is sure to win at least 3 titles. Songs included in the teaser trailer were Crusaders performed by Harry Gregson-Williams and Pretty Fly For A White Guy performed by The Offspring. The soundtrack to the movie is just as impressive as the songs chosen to set the mood in the trailer and definitely makes the movie more, and more extraordinary.

Since this is the first time Calcostosh has put their name on a budgeted film they had to create a low-cost company intro which ended in director Kelly McIntosh spending just less than an hour creating a slightly cheesy, but handmade title screen. When interviewed McIntosh said, “We had to use the trial version of Aurora 3D Animation Maker and plan out each scene, frame by frame! It was long and tiring work so I now have a new found appreciation for the animators that work in the movie business!”

The producers have not set release date more specific than summer of 2014 so we’ll all have to wait until it gets closer to the launch date to book a day off work to go see the movie!

Elizabeth McIntosh is a Blogger, frequent movie goer and Entertainment journalist for The Daily News where her articles are published every Monday and Thursday.