Zero Tolerance for Writer's Block

In the just wrapped Below Zero, a screenwriter with writer's block locks himself in a meat cooler in hopes that the threat of freezing to death will help break down the mental wall; instead, horrific hallucinations ensue. Shot on location in Edson, Alberta, the planned 2011 3D release stars Edward Furlong (Terminator 2, The Green Hornet), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), Kristin Booth (Young People F*cking) and nine-year-old local newcomer Sadie Madu, whose hair was cut and dyed so as to portray a creepy little boy.


Below Zero is the brainchild of Signe Olynyk, a Canadian female producer-writer whose credits include the CBC-TV travel show pilot Suzuki's World and L.A.'s Great American Pitchfest. What makes the location of Edson so special is that it is where Olynyk herself traveled to a few years earlier to overcome a personal case of writer's block. The end result of that trip was, you guessed it, Below Zero, which was directed by Justin Thomas Ostensen, co-creator of the 2006 homeless documentary By the Wayside.

[Below Zero]