Starring Dean Cain, Erika Eleniak, Richard Yearwood. Directed by Charles Robert Carner. Tristar Pictures, 2002
The Christmas rush has just begun. In the season of giving, the department took his badge. Criminals took his wife. Now, one cop is taking matters into his own hands.
I was hired by the art director of this film to create a number of objects for the set. The movie plays out in a large shopping mall on Christmas Eve when the largest amount of money will be ready to be sent out for deposit. A gang of thieves team up to intercept the deposit on the season’s busiest day. The hero happens to be in the mall and sees something is up so he stays to stop the gang in its tracks. There are some exciting moments. Portage Place Mall in Winnipeg is made up to look like Chicago Place. We created many of the items for the Santa’s Village area of the atrium including the angel that is used as a trapeze. The Chicago skyline that appears in the background of a nighttime scene where the gang meets to discuss the heist around a burning barrel is actually a silhouette that we created in my studio and added LED lights and drilled holes that were backlit to appear as windows and there you have it … the Chicago skyline. It was neat to see all of the props we created brought to light in the Portage Place Mall.