Hollywood brings hope to ski resort
Tuesday July 20, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The resort is about an hour west of Calgary in Alberta and was formerly operated by the Resorts of the Canadian Rockies group. 

The company also runs Fernie, Kimberley, Mont Ste Anne and the nearby resort of Nakiska.

It was sold to the Banff Rail Company in 2005.

However, it has not operated for the past few seasons due to financial problems associated with unpaid fees and taxes.

Some scenes in the $200m film, made by Christopher Nolan who made the last Batman film, were shot at Fortress Mountain.

Local reports say it involved the construction of a large set, the employment of a small army of extras and the shooting of on-snow scenes using snowmobiles.

It is assumed the resort negotiated a good fee too.

There is though no news as yet as to whether Fortress may be able to re-open in 2010-11 as a result of the film company's work in the area.

The Piz Gloria restaurantThe locals may be hoping for a repeat of events 40 years ago that helped a then incomplete revolving-restaurant, the world's first at altitude, built above Murren in the Swiss Jungfrau.

It had run out of development cash and  was used in the James Bond movie 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service.'

Money from the film company was used to complete construction of the Piz Gloria restaurant, the name taken from Ian Fleming's original 1963 novel, after filming was completed, and it is still operational today.

One of the stars of the film, the British actor, Tom Hardy, also learnt to ski in Fortress Mountain for the film. 

Apparently he did a 2 day crash course and it was enough for his filming duties.

He was reportedly worried then when he was asked in casting interviews if he could ski then a shaking of his head would lose him the part.

It didn't.

For a trailer of Inception, and a brief glimpse of the snow and Fortress Mountain, see below.

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