HBO and National Geographic Entertainment are filming for the first time in Canada together, and they have chosen the Valley to do it in.
    Producers Brad Pitt of Plan B Entertainment and Edward Norton of Class 5 Films, and executive producer Tom Hanks of Playtone Productions are filming a six-part mini series. Other well-known names on the production include Gary Goetszman and Dede Gardner, Tim Kelly and Adam Leipzig.
    The story is of American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they lead their voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean in 1803.
    Casey Affleck, will be starring as Lewis and Matthias Schoenaerts will be Clark.
    The production company has been casting in Southern Alberta the last couple of months and began production this month. They are in the Valley for two weeks filming.
    The six-part mini series is based on the 1997 non-fiction book Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose.
    Norton co-wrote the adaptation with John Curran and Michelle Ashford. Curran is serving as director for all six episodes.
    The mini-series is scheduled to be released sometime in 2016.