On a remote stretch of British Columbia, in a small swath of temperate rainforest on the northwest coast, there lives a very rare, endangered white bear. His name is Spirit Bear. And now he's on his way to Hollywood to star in his very own animated film.
"This film will help save the bear for us and for future generations," says Simon Jackson, the 21-year-old leader of the five-million-member Spirit Bear Youth Coalition.
After eight years of tireless campaigning on the bear's behalf, Jackson has joined forces with Max Howard, a former Walt Disney senior vice-president, and Kevin Richardson of Backstreet Boys, to produce the first major motion picture with the specific philanthropic purpose of protecting its namesake.
According to the plan, a portion of The Spirit Bear's profits will help the provincial government compensate loggers, forest companies and local aboriginal groups that could be affected by a continued moratorium on logging in the spirit bear's habitat. Jackson and his partners will also create an endowment trust to promote economic diversification in the region.
The goal sounds grand, but Jackson is confident that the The Spirit Bear has what it takes to become even more famous than the The Lion King. And that little cartoon creature grossed more than $300-million (U.S.)
"From what I've seen so far of the preliminary screenplay and drawings, there's not a shadow of doubt in my mind that this will be a remarkable film," says Jackson, one of Time magazine's 60 Heroes For the Planet, in 2000.
Slated for release in the spring of 2006, this feature-length, CGI movie-with-a-mission will follow the fun-filled adventures and perilous escapes of a cute and clumsy cub on his journey to adulthood. And although the story will tell of the dangers to the bear's survival, it won't preach or turn loggers into villains.
"Our goal is to inspire and entertain," Jackson says.
The Spirit Bear will be set in the Great Bear Rainforest, where this unique white subspecies of the black bear has roamed for thousands of years. Revered in ancient legends of the Tsimshian people, who believe the Raven created the white bear as a reminder of the last ice age, it is said that good fortune will come to anyone who encounters the animal.
Today, however, there are less than 400 spirit bears left in existence. And they can only be found on B.C.'s north-central coast, a triangular, 250,000-hectare region bordered by the towns of Bella Bella, Stewart and Hazelton.
Although commonly known as the spirit bear, this unique creature is officially called the white Kermode bear. It was named after Francis Kermode, the scientist who conducted the first studies into its origins and the double-recessive gene believed responsible for giving one out of every 10 black bears in the area a pure, snow-white pelt.
Simon Jackson was a 13-year-old, West Vancouver high-school student when he heard about the bear's plight. Already a seasoned environmental activist who set up his first lemonade stand to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund when he was only 7, Jackson founded the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition, in 1995, to protect the bear's natural habitat.
"It made for an awkward teen life," Jackson says, recalling years of being picked on by peers for his futile good deeds. "I didn't have a girlfriend until I was in Grade 12."
The efforts paid off. His letter-writing campaign has now grown into the world's largest youth-led environmental initiative, a five-million-member coalition that spans 50 countries. The group's supporters include Jane Goodall, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Charlotte Church and Richardson, who will be overseeing the soundtrack.
And Jackson, now a preppy young man who lives in Toronto, is in a solid relationship with a woman he affectionately calls "the most fantastic girlfriend in the world."
On April 4, 2001, around the same time that Jackson was preparing to graduate from high school, the then provincial NDP government in B.C. struck a landmark agreement with forest companies, first nations and environmental groups that called for the protection of 603,000 hectares on the central coast, including half of the spirit bear's habitat. The deal, which has yet to be made law by the current Liberal government, also called for a two-year moratorium on logging another 537,000 hectares (including the other half of the bear's habitat), pending a land-use study by a committee of scientists.
The moratorium ended on June 30. And although the timber companies have agreed not to resume logging in the area until the land-use assessment is completed (by December, it is hoped), the provincial government is losing patience.
Stan Hagen, the provincial minister of sustainable resource management, told Jackson that the government simply doesn't have enough money to compensate loggers, logging companies and the first nations people who would be affected by a continued moratorium. He advised Jackson to come up with some of his own ideas.
Enter Italia Gandolfo, a southern belle from Louisville, Ky., with a Rolodex as big as her heart. The former assistant research director at Creative Artists Agency (the largest talent agency in Hollywood) got fed up with the phoniness of La-La Land and headed back home a few years ago.
An animal lover who now works in children's book publishing, Gandolfo heard about the spirit bear's plight about a year ago. After doing some research on the Internet, she found Jackson's group, and tracked him down at the University of Toronto, where he had just completed the first year of a political-science program.
"I was really drawn to his passion," Gandolfo says. "He called me back almost immediately and we were instant friends. I wanted to help. And between the two of us, we planted the seed for this film."
Together, Jackson and Gandolfo have established Hé ladé Productions. As co-executive producers of the film and director of the Hé ladé Foundation, their goal is to turn the The Spirit Bear into the world's most lucrative children's franchise.
Graham Currie, a spokesman for British Columbia's Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, says the government can't even begin to estimate how many millions would be needed for the compensation package until the land-use recommendations are made.
Gandolfo, nevertheless, remains relentlessly optimistic about achieving their goals. "If you look at The Lion King and how much money it made from home videos, toys, games and miscellaneous items, this could be huge.
"We've got this beautiful white bear. Kids and adults all love bears -- the teddy-bear market is phenomenal. And the real-life plight of our spirit bear will just melt their hearts and make them all warm and fuzzy."
The Lion King comparison isn't all that far-fetched when you consider that Max Howard, the Hollywood producer Gandolfo helped bring on board, is the former president of Warner Bros. Animation and senior vice-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation.
" The Lion King was the most successful animated film in history because it combined an epic landscape with a life-affirming story of loss and redemption," Howard explained at a Vancouver press conference two weeks ago.
"In The Spirit Bear, I see all those same elements woven together with a very real, urgent issue of global importance, which gives me confidence that it has the potential to be as groundbreaking a film."
Howard, who was in Hartley Bay last week to meet with first nations to discuss the spirit bear and see one in its natural habitat, will not disclose the movie's budget. He does, however, promise it will be the biggest budget of any independent animated movie ever made.
Although no one has actually come out and criticized the film's goal, Jackson understands that some environmental groups might be wary of involving Hollywood, or perhaps fear that this project might shoot the rest of the rainforest issue in the foot. He respectfully disagrees. "Even if the film doesn't make millions, this will still provide us with an opportunity to stimulate global debate and raise awareness around the world. The more people who hear about the spirit bear, the better chance we have of creating a lasting solution to this issue."
Alexandra Gill