Currie – An Eastern Western

A team of PEI filmmakers has brought the Old West to Western Canada with a new TV series: Currie — An Eastern Western, airing on Bell TV1.

Katie Mac and Justin O’Hanley teamed up to pen a fun romp through 1902 Prince Edward Island told from the point of view of two real-life Wild West outlaws visiting the province.

“We really wanted to take the fun of an old western adventure and set it around PEI sandbars and red cliffs,” said O’Hanley, who also directed the project.

George Currie was born on PEI and left when he was young, as many Islanders do. George, however, went on to run with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Harvey Logan was part of the gang, and while he wasn’t related to George, Logan took on the alias Kid Currie.

“Because it’s anchored in this real history, but we’ve added a bit of a PEI-spin, we like to say it’s sort of a true story. We picked up the story after George’s untimely death,” said O’Hanley. “His two best friends in the world—Kid and Josie—return to his birthplace to honour his memory, and get stuck here in a quagmire of kindness.”

The series stars Islanders Kristen Thompson as Josie and Nicholas Reeves as Kid Currie. The five-episode comedy series is shot entirely on PEI. 

The series is based on the award-winning PEI short film Currie, which took the Best Western Short award at the Billy the Kid Film Festival and the Best Foreign Film at the 307 International Film Festival. 

Watch Currie — An Eastern Western on Bell TV1.