North Country

Last Update: 28 March 2006

 

Sean joins Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sissy Spacek and Woody Harrelson in North Country. The cast also includes Richard Jenkins, Jeremy Renner and Michelle Monaghan. Spacek and Jenkins play the parents of Josie Aimes (Theron), a single mom who rallies her female co-workers to rise above the unfair treatment they face at a local mining company. Harrelson plays Josie's lawyer, Sean plays Kyle, the boyfriend of Josie's best friend Glory (McDormand), Renner is a mineworker and former classmate of Josie's, and Monaghan is Josie's fellow mineworker. In a departure from his British roots, Sean adopts a Minnesota accent for this film.

 

European North Country poster. Click on the pic for a larger version.

 

When Josey Aimes (Academy Award winner CHARLIZE THERON) returns to

her hometown in Northern Minnesota after a failed marriage, she needs a

good job. A single mother with two children to support, she turns to the

predominant source of employment in the region – the iron mines.

 

 

The mines provide a livelihood that has sustained a community for

generations. The work is hard but the pay is good and friendships that

form on the job extend into everyday life, bonding families and

neighborhoods with a common thread.

 

It’s an industry long dominated by men, in a place unaccustomed to change.

 

Encouraged by her old friend Glory (Academy Award winner FRANCES

McDORMAND), one of the few female miners in town, Josey joins the ranks of

those laboring to blast ore from rock in the gaping quarries. She is prepared

for the back-breaking and often dangerous work, but coping with the

harassment she and the other female miners encounter from their male

coworkers proves far more challenging.

 

 

 

Times are tough. The last thing the miners want is women competing for

scarce jobs – women who, in their estimation, have no business driving

trucks and hauling rock anyway. If these newcomers want to work the mines

they’ll have to do it on the terms set by the veteran workforce and it won’t

be easy. Take it or leave it.

 

 

When Josey speaks out against the treatment she and her fellow workers

face she is met with resistance – not only from those in power but from a

community that doesn’t want to hear the truth, her disapproving parents and

many of her own colleagues who fear she is only making things worse. In

time, even her friendship with Glory will be tested, her already difficult

connection with her father, a lifelong miner, will be pushed to its limit and

elements of her personal life exposed to scrutiny. The fallout from Josey’s

battle to make a better future for herself and her children will affect every

aspect of her life, including her relationship with her young daughter and her

sensitive teenage son, who must first cope with the embarrassment of his

mother’s sudden notoriety and then face harsh details of her past she was

hoping he would never have to know.

 

Through these struggles Josey will find the courage to stand up for what she

believes in – even if that means standing alone.

 

 

Inspired by a true story, North Country follows Josey’s journey on a road that

will take her farther than she ever imagined, ultimately inspiring countless

others, and leading to the nation’s first-ever class action lawsuit for sexual

harassment.

 

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Participant Productions, a

Nick Wechsler Production of a Niki Caro Film: Charlize Theron and Frances

McDormand star in North Country, also starring Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins,

Jeremy Renner, Michelle Monaghan, with Woody Harrelson and Sissy Spacek.

North Country is directed by Niki Caro and produced by Nick Wechsler, from a

screenplay by Michael Seitzman, inspired by the book titled “Class Action:

The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law,” by Clara Bingham

and Laura Leedy Gansler. Helen Bartlett, Nana Greenwald, Doug Claybourne

and Jeff Skoll are executive producers. Chris Menges is the director of

photography; Richard Hoover, the production designer; and David Coulson,

film editor. Music by Gustavo Santaolalla. North Country will be distributed

worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

 

 

This film is rated R by the MPAA for “sequences involving sexual harassment

including violence and dialogue, and for langua

 

Soundtrack album on Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax.

 

Principal photography for exterior work began February 14, 2005 in Northern
Minnesota.

 

Locations included:

- Eveleth Auditorium, fire hall and Eveleth Hippodrome hockey rink

- some mining scenes at Ispat-Inland Mining Co. near Virginia.

 

The production moved to New Mexico on March 7, 2005.

 

Locations included:

- Grant County (Phelps Dodge Mining Company)

- Cobre and Chino mines

 

Production continued in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Vegas from
March 21 to April 29, 2005.

Read the North Country Production Notes here. Visit the North Country Press Archive here.   Visit the North Country Official sites. http://www.northcountrymovie.com http://www.participate.net/standup   Watch the North Country trailer here. Coverage of the North Country premiere at the Toronto Film Festival here. Photos from other North Country premieres here

This ad appeared in Daily Variety in November 2005 as part of a two-page spread promoting the cast of North Country to be nominated for the 2006 Academy Awards. Click here to see the second of the larger pages. (The first page featured Charlize Theron). (Thanks to Terri for the scans.)

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS:

Josey Aimes Karen Aimes Sammy Aimes Glory Kyle Bill White Bobby Sharp Hank Aimes Alice Aimes

CHARLIZE THERON ELLE PETERSON THOMAS CURTIS FRANCES McDORMAND SEAN BEAN WOODY HARRELSON JEREMY RENNER RICHARD JENKINS SISSY SPACEK

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Genre Produced by Distributor

Drama Warner Bros. Warner Bros.

Executive Producers

Helen Bartlett, Nana Greenwald, Doug Claybourne, Jeff Skoll

Producer

Nick Wechsler

Directed by Screenplay Inspired by the book "CLASS ACTION: THE LANDMARK CASE THAT CHANGED SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW"

Niki Caro Michael Seitzman by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler

Running time Rated Release Dates Premiere Screenings

126 min UK:15 / USA:R US: October 21, 2005 UK: February 3, 2006 Australia: February 2, 2006 Toronto Film Festival, Sept 12, 2005 Los Angeles, Oct 10, 2005 London, Feb 1, 2006

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