Who’s yer father?

Comedy caper set in PEI penned by Cherry Valley resident

The Atlantic Canada number one box office movie Who’s Yer Father?, written and directed by Cherry Valley resident Jeremy Larter, is being screened at the Regent Theatre on Sunday evening. It’s the story of a down-on-his-luck private investigator in a small town in Prince Edward Island who teams up with a convenience store owner to foil a black market lobster smuggling ring. Mr. Larter came up with the idea for the movie almost a decade ago when he toyed with the notion of becoming a private investigator as a way to supplement his income as an artist. He actually went for an interview and was offered a job to edit surveillance video footage instead. After viewing hours of boring content, he realized that the job of a PI may not be that glamorous after all, but he wondered what it would be like to be a PI in a very small community, such as his home town in PEI. “The idea of being a private investigator in a very small place is very funny to me, because it would be a hard thing to do in a place with lots of close connections between people,” he said. “The title of the movie comes from an expression you hear a lot in Atlantic Canada, which is ‘Who’s yer father?’. It’s a way to try to make a connection with someone and figure out what your relationship is with them.” He actually used Google to find a PI in PEI and got in contact with them, discovering that they were disgruntled and ready to quit because they had been asked so many times to spy on family members.

Mr. Larter was born and raised in PEI and went to Sheridan College in Oakville for post-grad studies in Advanced Television and Film Production in 2005. He also took acting classes and worked as a production assistant in the film industry. He created the hit web series Just Passing Through about two guys from PEI trying to make their way to Alberta and ending up being stuck in Toronto. He also filmed a show called Pogey Beach, which was about a fictional beach in PEI where unemployed people go to party. He started writing the script for his latest film in 2015, and tailored the part of the convenience store owner, Rhonda Perry, for the actor Susan Kent—from This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Trailer Park Boys—whom he had met on the set of a web series called Wharf Rats being shot in PEI. “I had met her, and I didn’t really know her, but I wanted to write a great character for her because she is so brilliantly talented. To me, she’s like the Carol Burnett of Canada. The private investigator idea goes back to this struggling down-on-his-luck guy, and I thought Chris Locke, who is a comedian I had known for years, would be really good for the part,” he said. “Susan was cast first, then we had Chris and Susan do a ‘chemistry test’ where they get in the same room and read the script together, and there was this magic chemistry between the two of them, and that’s how they became Larry and Rhonda.”

It is a long and involved process to get from simply having a script to shooting a film. Mr. Larter applied for funding from Telefilm Canada in 2021.

He brought producers Jenna MacMillan and Jason Arsenault on board and began assembling the cast and crew. He also scouted locations for filming in PEI. All the while the script kept evolving. “You never really finish writing the film. Kevin Fraser, the director of photography, and I had a lot of time to prepare, so we had the whole movie storyboarded months in advance, and we’d go to locations and figure out where the lighting was going to be, the movement of the actors; we had almost all of that planned in advance,” said Mr. Larter. The actors also had their input. “Chris and Susan were staying at the same motel in PEI and when they were off-set they would work on the scenes together and come back on set with different ideas for things to do, and my job as a director was to figure out what works in a scene and allow the actors the freedom to play and have fun. When you’re working with such talented and imaginative people you want to give them the space to create,” said Mr. Larter.

The shooting locations were mostly within about a 10-minute drive from Mr. Larter’s home town near West Cove Head, and one location was next door to his parents’ home. His father appears in the movie, and his son makes a cameo appearance. The most challenging part of the movie for Mr. Larter was a scene involving action at a cliff, which included stunt work. “That took a bit of planning, because it involved the safety of people. Making movies can be a lot of fun, but it can be dangerous at times,” he said. The movie has received an excellent welcome in Atlantic Canada and is currently playing in nine cities across the country. “To have a movie being played in theatres during this streaming era is really special,” he said. “It’s a wild, silly comedy, but it also has a sweet romantic feeling to it as well. It’s about two people in their forties finding each other and having a wild adventure.” The movie will be released on iTunes in mid- December and will be streamed on Paramount-plus in January. The movie will be screened at the Regent Theatre on Sunday, November 26 at 7 p.m.