Gary Sinise takes fans behind the scenes of Reindeer Games in Prince George

One of the few things I knew about Prince George before I moved to town was that Reindeer Games was filmed here. As one of the few people who still owns this movie on DVD, I made a point of checking out some of the locations last fall, especially once I learned that Citizen photographer Chuck Nisbett was an extra in a prison scene.

So it was fun to see actor Gary Sinise share a bunch of behind-the-scenes photos from the production of the 2000 crime thriller. A regular user of Reddit, Sinise likes to post photos from his career, most of which are from his personal collection and have never been seen.

In the Reindeer Games photos, posted Tuesday, Feb. 25, Sinise has long hair and a goatee, in line with his shady criminal character. He's pictured with co-stars Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, Donal Logue, Danny Trejo and Dennis Farina, along with director John Frankenheimer.

If you haven't seen the movie (or forgotten it), here's a recap: Reindeer Games follows a man named Rudy Duncan (played by Affleck), who is recently released from prison after the murder cellmate, Nick (played by Frain), who has been in a prison romance-by-mail with a woman he's never met. Rudy sees the woman waiting outside the prison and, probably because she's played by Theron, decides to pretend to be Nick. But it's all a ploy by her evil brother (Sinise) and Rudy becomes entangled in a dangerous casino heist plot involving a bunch of hoods who think he's master thief Nick.

This movie was a notorious bomb.

It's fun, though, and more interesting to watch now that 25 years have gone by and so many PG landmarks have changed. While some of the film was shot in Vancouver, most of the exteriors were shot here, standing in for chilly northern Michigan, which looks a little like these parts if you know where to focus the camera.

Thanks to a really fun Tripod fansite devoted to the filming of the movie, we can see where key scenes were shot.

The prison in the opening scenes was the old Prince George jail, which had just been closed in favour of its nearby replacement. Perfect for use as a film set, even if they did have to truck in artificial snow despite the movie shooting in March and April 1999. That's PG weather for you, right?

A shopping plaza in College Heights and a TD Bank were turned into their American counterparts. The characters planned their heist at a motel on the Hart Highway.

The Tomahawk Casino itself? That was the Hart Pioneer Centre, at the time a Lion's Club hall, tricked out with plenty of neon.

The production also made use of a lot of local extras, so if you're in the movie, give it another watch, and if not, look for familiar faces.

On a side note, a newspaper in town (not this one) thought it would be funny to run an April Fool's Day front-page story about the filming, which apparently ticked Affleck off to no end.

Have a look at Sinise's photos. They're pretty fun, and a good reminder that Prince George has been a filming location many times, including for the horror movie Dreamcatcher and a string of romantic Christmas films. We've had a lot of stars come through town. It's something we should be proud of.

I'm including a screengrab from the movie of Chuck in prison because it's hilarious.

Kennedy Gordon is The Citizen's managing editor.