Sean Campbell with his son Mac

(2005 independent film)

Bruce Greenwood headlines the cast of this family fantasy playing Sean Campbell, an oil company executive sent to salvage his company's latest project, which is located in a remote lake area of Canada. His son Mac (played by Canadian actor Daniel Magder) befriends a giant creature that lives in the lake and soon realizes the drilling for oil will ultimately destroy the lake where this creature lives. The project was originally envisioned as an homage to the Canadian legend of Ogopogo, but locale and monster were changed to avoid offending local Indian tribes and filming was done in New Zealand. British director John Henderson is at the helm with several New Zealand actors in key roles, including Luanne Gordon as Bruce's love interest, Rena Owen (Once Were Warriors) as a strange recluse with a connection to the creatures, 9-year-old Wellington actor Jacinta Wawatai-Woodhouse as Mac's local friend and Charles Mesure and Joel Tobeck as the villains. The Jim Henson Company is in charge of creating the water monsters.

Shooting took place in Queenstown, NZ for 8 weeks beginning on April 21, 2002 and running through late June under the title, "The Water Giant". An official website with clips was put up in 2003, but the film's distribution rights were transferred so many times it never made it into theaters, which is a shame since it should have played well on the big screen. It debuted in 2006 under its new title at the TriBeca Film Festival and was released shortly afterwards as a direct-to-video DVD.

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