The Horseman stars Barry Pepper and Kiefer Sutherland
A new movie scheduled for a 2027 release uses rural Alberta as its backdrop.
The Horseman, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Barry Pepper, is wrapping filming this week.
Alberta’s branch of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), says the project began filming in “Rural Alberta” on June 15, with an end date of July 9.
The Edmonton Movie Guide reports the crew is filming in areas around the Drumheller Valley near Three Hills.
The western centres around the relationship between a man and his horse in the late 1800s.
The Horseman “follows a grieving father (Pepper) who takes in a young colt as his sole companion,” the film’s IMDb page says. “When they develop a profound bond and are separated against their will, he must take desperate measures to reunite.”
Sutherland plays Pepper’s foe.
His character is “a narcissistic aristocrat consumed with demonstrating his superiority through intellect, wealth and violence. Educated, ruthless and lethal with a pistol, he pursues land and power with callous disregard for anyone who dares obstruct his path,” a July 1 release from Scripps Networks says.
Rural Alberta has played host to multiple movie projects over the years.
In total, more than 60 per cent of movie and TV projects filmed in the province are done in rural communities, contributing more than $600 million to those communities since 2020.
The Scott Ranch, a 5,000-acre property in Longview, Alta., for example, is where movies like Shanghai Noon and Legends of the Fall were shot, and bumped elbows with Hollywood names like Brad Pitt and Jackie Chan.
“They’re great people and they want your help because they respect your expertise and the animals,” John Scott, owner of the ranch, told Farms.com in June 2025. “Pitt rode seven different horses for Legends of the Fall, and I think he looked great on all of them. Jackie Chan came here with no riding experience and worked at it so hard that after two weeks you’d think he had years of experience.”
Scott received the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2025 for his role in bringing movie production to Alberta.