Chaindance

Background

The film is based on Alan Aylward's work with physically disabled children as a recreational therapist at a residential chronic care centre in Toronto from 1974 to 1980. The original script suggested Nick Nolte as Blake (played by Mike Ironside) and John Hurt as Johnnie (played by Brad Dourif). Hurt (who Aylward had worked with on his Documentary Series - The Disability Myth, was interested in the role of Johnnie) Nolte's agent wanted a few million dollars for a retainer which Aylward couldn't muster in his life. Thus the next choice - Ironside. The film only got made because of Mike Ironside. He was on set with Nick Nolte and Powers Boothe in New Mexico making a film called Extreme Prejudice. Aylward gave the script to Lori Rotenberg, Mike's Toronto agent, who sent it to Ironside to read for the role of Blake. Ironside just finished the script (a prison story) when Nolte emerged from his trailer to announce that he had just secured the rights to produce Weeds, based on the book by the same name, and also "a prison story". Ironside thought it was pure serendipity. If Nolte's gutsy enough to make a prison film, why not Ironside? Mike optioned the script from Aylward in 1987/88 and despite the odds, got it produced in Vancouver and released within two years. A few years later, the British Columbia Corrections Ministry started a program between prisoners and institutionalized handicapped patients based on the fictitious rehabilitation program in Chaindance.

Recognition