Laserhawk
A Canadian sci-fi film with a troubled production and late release.
**Laserhawk** is a 1998 Canadian science fiction film directed by Jean Pellerin. The cast includes Jason James Richter, Melissa Galianos, Gordon Currie, and Mark Hamill. The story follows two teenagers who join forces with a comic book writer and a mental patient to prevent an alien invasion from destroying humanity. The film was more ambitious than most Canadian genre movies of its era, but it faced a difficult production and eventually received a delayed release on a small screen.
**Plot**
In Wisconsin, nerdy teenager Zach Raymond becomes locally famous after claiming to have recorded a UFO on video with exceptional clarity. U.S. Army Colonel Lewis Teagarden investigates and discovers Zach faked the footage using a green screen and a homemade model. Humiliated, Zach takes a job at a diner, where he meets Cara, a goth girl and comic book enthusiast. She points out that his fake UFO design was copied directly from her favorite comic. Zach, who has never seen the comic, is puzzled.
Later, while driving a coworker home through the woods, Zach sees a real UFO emitting a blinding light. He panics, crashes his car into a tree, and watches the UFO lift a school bus full of football players returning from a game. The bus is dropped back into the woods, empty. More UFOs—identical to Zach’s fake and the comic’s design—appear over the town, abducting residents. The comic was created by M.K. Ultra, who admits he based it on the ravings of a mental patient named Bob. Bob, it turns out, is not insane but an alien reincarnated 250 million years ago, waiting for the invaders to return. Zach and Cara discover they are also reincarnated aliens destined to save Earth.
**Production**
The film originated with John Curtis of Everest Pictures in Vancouver, but rising costs there prompted a co-production deal. Greenlight Communications, a Toronto-based newcomer that had acquired a stake in Everest, brokered an arrangement with Kingsborough Pictures of Montreal. This marked the first co-production between British Columbia and Quebec. The companies operated under the legal entity Laserbird Films. British-based Screen Partners arranged financing.
Originally budgeted at CAD$3 million, filming was set for December 1995 with Jean Pellerin—a heavy metal music video director—making his feature debut. The budget later rose to between CAD$4.5 million and $5.2 million.
- Release year
- 1998
- Country
- Canada
- Director
- Jean Pellerin
- Budget
- CAD$7 million to 8.4 million (estimated final cost)
- Runtime
- Not specified in article
- Genre
- Science fiction
Lore & Background
The film was the brainchild of Vancouver-based John Curtis of Everest Pictures. It was the first co-production between British Columbia and Quebec, brokered by Greenlight Communications and Kingsborough Pictures. Originally budgeted at CAD$3 million and set to begin filming in December 1995, it was delayed to late May 1996. Principal photography took place between June 4 and July 13, 1996, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Iberville, Quebec, with a budget estimated between CAD$4.5 million and 5.2 million. The production contracted 500 to 600 persons overall.
Post-production was assigned to Motion Works Group and DHD Postimage, with CAD$1 million earmarked for visual effects. The effects work, originally 120 shots later bumped to about 140, wrapped up in December 1997 after delays and budget overruns at Motion Works. The film's cost was later pegged between CAD$7 million and 8.4 million, making it arguably the biggest independent project to originate from Western Canada at that point.
Laserhawk was originally slated for theatrical release in Canada but instead premiered at the Cannes Film Market on May 16, 1998. It was also screened at Fant-Asia Toronto on August 1, 1998. In the U.S., it premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel on October 9, 1999, and was released on home video in Canada on July 27, 1999, and in the U.S. on VHS and DVD on May 23, 2000.
Reader's Guide
Laserhawk is notable as an ambitious Canadian independent science fiction film that ultimately failed to achieve a theatrical release, instead debuting on television and home video. Its troubled production—marked by budget overruns, delays, and the collapse of its financing company—reflects the challenges of independent filmmaking in Canada during the late 1990s. The film's cast includes Mark Hamill, who had previously worked with producer John Curtis on the alien thriller Time Runner, and Jason James Richter, then known for the Free Willy series. Critical reception was mixed to negative, with reviewers noting the film's confused production and merely adequate special effects. Despite its obscurity, Laserhawk represents an early co-production between British Columbia and Quebec and a notable attempt at a genre film with higher ambitions than typical Canadian productions of the era.
Did You Know?
- Mark Hamill's participation was kept a secret during the shoot.
- A DAT recorder was stolen during the first week of filming, causing the loss of a day's worth of audio and an extra day of reshoots.
- Local auto shop owner Réal Hamel, asked to paint four vehicles overnight, became one of Canada's go-to vehicle coordinators as a result.
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