{"id":2323,"date":"2014-06-04T06:26:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T12:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2014-06-05T11:34:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T17:34:00","slug":"cut-bank-wonders-will-it-be-the-next-fargo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/06\/cut-bank-wonders-will-it-be-the-next-fargo\/","title":{"rendered":"Cut Bank wonders: Will it be the next ‘Fargo’?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"movie\"<\/a>

Tania Lewis<\/p>

Residents of Cut Bank are nervously awaiting a supposedly dark movie by the name of “Cut Bank.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Cut Bank, the rugged eastern entryway to Glacier National Park, is where wheat fields fuse with the majesty of the Rocky Mountains, where outdoor scenery is big, broad and brash.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the friendly rhythms of small-town life that keep this community of fewer than 3,000 grounded.<\/p>\n

Pumpkin cookie recipes, along with the Cut Bank High School Wolves and Lady Wolves, receive priority placement in the weekly newspaper. Conversations touch on retirement teas, church schedules, fishing holes, and the trajectory of the class of 2014, which graduated 50. Nearby Hutterite colonies plant and pick their produce in scenic quietude.<\/p>\n

The people of Cut Bank \u2014 which traces its history back to the Great Northern Railway in the early 1890s \u2014 believe they represent the very best of Montana.<\/p>\n

That helps explain why many people in town are looking toward June 16 with a mixture of hope and dread. On that date, Hollywood officially serves up the movie \u201cCut Bank\u201d to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are nervously awaiting the portrayal,\u201d said Amy Overstreet, executive director of the Cut Bank Area Chamber of Commerce. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard that some of the film\u2019s tag lines are things like, \u2018Cut Bank, where dreams go to die,\u2019 and \u2018Cut Bank, where luck doesn\u2019t exist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To better prepare Cut Bank for what could be a wild ride, Overstreet spoke with her counterparts at the Fargo Chamber of Commerce. Since 1996, the North Dakota city has lived in the homicidal, wood-chipper shadows of \u201cFargo,\u201d the Coen Brothers\u2019 sixth film and now a cable TV series.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot like the city of Fargo, we didn\u2019t seek it out \u2014 the attention,\u201d Overstreet said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that is happening to us, and we\u2019d like to turn it into something positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s about what happened in Fargo, according to Danielle Teigen, communications and marketing manager of the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously don\u2019t embrace or agree with all of the characters in the \u2018Fargo\u2019 movie or series,\u201d Teigen said. \u201cWe still see it as something positive, though. Hopefully, it motivates or inspires people to come to Fargo and get their own perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

While information is scarce as to just what \u201cCut Bank\u201d and its script entail, Overstreet said \u201cthe movie seems kind of dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

A ‘darkish plot’<\/h5>\n

\u201cIt has a darkish plot, and it springs out of control,\u201d said Overstreet. \u201cIt is possible that the plot it is based on an actual case in a different community, but it is not based on actual events that took place in Cut Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cast of \u201cCut Bank\u201d includes Liam Hemsworth, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bruce Dern. At least one cast member, John Malkovich, visited the real Cut Bank a few months ago. The actor posed for photos and ate lunch at the Big Sky Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was front page news,\u201d Overstreet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty exciting and, of course, a little scary,\u201d said Jeff Billman, president of the chamber and owner of Billman True Value, a third-generation hardware store. \u201cI\u2019ve been reading the description, and it\u2019s a little scary. It\u2019s such a big film. I\u2019ve heard all of the names.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually going to be a big deal. But any publicity is good publicity. It should be good for our town. As a chamber, we are preparing for it. Let\u2019s capitalize off of it and turn it into a positive. I can\u2019t see how it could not be good for tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie wasn\u2019t filmed in Montana, but near Edmonton, Alberta. Billman said he was impressed with the visual similarities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a few publicity photos online,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to admit that the area where it was filmed is quite beautiful. It looks like a pretty good representation of our landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Tania Lewis<\/p>

A concrete statue of a penguin on Cut Bank’s main drag may be the best-known thing in the community.<\/p><\/div>\n

The real Cut Bank attracts people to the community because it is family-friendly, off-the-beaten path and affordable. An ad taken out by Royal Real Estate in the Cut Bank Pioneer Press splits home listings into two categories: under $75,000 and over $75,000.<\/p>\n

Overstreet was born and raised in Great Falls and had never been to Cut Bank until the day she moved there with her husband, Matt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had lived in Alaska,\u201d Overstreet said. \u201cAfter moving around and out of Montana for several years, we came to Cut Bank, and we only intended to stay for 18 months. But after 18 months, we were hooked, and we never left.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Overstreet first heard rumors of a film project with the name Cut Bank as its heading, she was incredulous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had received emails in June 2013,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m thinking, \u2018is this a joke?\u2019 \u2018Is this for real?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel protective of the town and individuals that live here,\u201d she continued. \u201cThis town is an amazing group of people. Like most small towns, you know everyone\u2019s successes and struggles and develop a lot of empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The famous penguin<\/h5>\n

Cut Bank\u2019s most famous icon has been greeting tourists on Main Street since 1989. Constructed of 10,000 pounds of concrete and approximately 27 feet tall, the penguin statue outside the Glacier Gateway Inn declares Cut Bank to be \u201cthe coldest spot in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be here forever,\u201d Billman said. \u201cI believe the hotel owner built it, and it once talked, it had a microphone. There was an ice cream shop across the street, and it was a good ploy \u2014 come stop to check out the penguin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billman, who was born and raised in Cut Bank, said the penguin is \u201cone of those things that people always talk about. It could turn into our claim to fame. It\u2019s very rarely that someone doesn\u2019t stop and take a picture with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overstreet and fellow chamber member Amie Allison will attend the world premiere of \u201cCut Bank\u201d at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 16.<\/p>\n

Allison, who also serves as Cut Bank\u2019s Emergency Medical Service\u2019s chief, was raised in Cut Bank \u2014 her father ran a radio station \u2014 and she returned in 2009, following years of living in other places, including Texas and Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Cut Bank, whether people know you or not, they will be waving to say hi,\u201d Allison said. \u201cThere is a sense of family, whether at work or home or when you are checking the mail. It\u2019s a place that has molded who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allison and Overstreet said they will go to California with an open mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll wear our penguin shirts,\u201d Overstreet said. \u201cI know that it\u2019s kind of tacky. But why not have fun with it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian D\u2019Ambrosio is a freelance writer who works with the Montana Film Office.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cut Bank, the rugged eastern entryway to Glacier National Park, is where wheat fields fuse with the majesty of the Rocky Mountains, where outdoor scenery is big, broad and brash. But it\u2019s the friendly rhythms of small-town life that keep this community of fewer than 3,000 grounded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[766,761,764,220,758,759,760,762,765,763],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-montana","tag-amie-allison","tag-amy-overstreet","tag-billy-bob-thornton","tag-bruce-dern","tag-coen-brotrhers","tag-cut-bank","tag-fargo","tag-great-northern-railway","tag-jeff-billman","tag-liam-hemsworth","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}