He's a legendary horseman, wrangler, cowboy, stuntman and now movie star.

Longview's John Scott, saw his biography and the history of his business played out on the big screen over the weekend at the Calgary International Film Festival with the premier of "True West: The John Scott Story."

Scott, says while he and his 50 year career in the movie business is the focus of the documentary, it's not just about him.

"I saw the chance to showcase a lot of the people who helped put the company together and the wranglers that started the wrangling business in Alberta. And the people who've helped support us with their animal acts and the trainers and things like that. That's how it kind of came together."

For Scott, who's worked on dozens of films in his career, he says it's a great honour to have his story told.

"I appreciate all the tributes. But I also wanted to expose all the beautiful scenery we've got in Alberta. Use it maybe as a marketing tool to help bring future business in here. You know, we need to market Alberta more. We've only got three pictures shooting here now and there's 67 in Vancouver."

He started back in 1970 and hasn't looked back since, working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

"Well I worked with a lot of great actors. You know, Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin, the old timers like Paul Newman and Glenn Ford and the modern ones like Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn, some like that and 99 per cent of them are absolutely wonderful to work with and very nice people."

Seven of the films he's worked on have won Academy Awards, including Lord of the Rings, The Revenant, Legends of the Fall and Unforgiven.

Viewings of the film were sold out at CIFF, but can be downloaded from their website.

 

Send us your news tips, story ideas and comments at news@highriveronline.com