Airdrie became the perfect location for a movie that might be coming to a theatre near you this summer, if everything goes according to plan.

The movie 'Risen' is an American sci-fi thriller according to Eddie Arya, the film company's founder, and director. The film is being produced by his Australian film company Arya Vision Pictures. We were invited to join on set and meet the cast and crew. Some of the crew were comprised of locals the company hired.

Arya says he chose Airdrie to film part of the film due to its breathtaking and truly cinematic scenery. It inspired him when doing research on it back in Sydney and he said, "I fell in love with it."

He credits the city for its people and mentioned the incredible outpouring of support from the community. Arya says the people and the climate is exactly what he needed.

In the film itself, you can expect extra-terrestrials and many different galaxies. It's about a civilization that's about to come to its end. The characters are searching for a new home by trying to grow a particular plant on other planets to survive. After trying a few planets and failing to find a suitable one, they have made their way to earth and it's finally growing, but the plant is changing our atmosphere. This puts Earth in an 'us or them' situation.

The timing was interesting for the Australian part of this cast and crew who came from 40°C+ temperatures, to only find themselves in one of the coldest Februarys in a very long time for Airdrie. The minus 30 and 40°C temperatures made things a bit more difficult. Despite the sun and cloud changes causing lighting issues, Arya says he's enjoyed it.

"It was fresh. I love the cold and I enjoyed the snow, I think we needed it."

Despite the weather, Eddie also says he would come back to Airdrie to film again, saying "Canada is more like a second home to me. I have a connection to Canada, I love Canada. I have plans for future films and I would shoot here in Airdrie."

The company is hoping for a July-August release for the film and hope to screen internationally.

"There's been a lot of hard work and teamwork, so we all have pretty high hopes. But at the end of the day, I just want to tell a story. I'm not competing with anyone, I'm not expecting money, fame or fortune. I just wanted to tell a simple story and as long as it gets out there, I think we have succeeded," he says.

The cast seemed to enjoy the shoot and AIR 106.1 FM was questioned by lead actor Dominic Stone about our fair city. He said it's beautiful, thinks summers would be gorgeous and is eager to see more of Airdrie's historic side.

You can find the trailer for Risen here: 

More pictures from the set in Airdrie: