One of Stayner author Tony Burgess' books is now a film and it will be shown next month at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, which runs Sept. 4-13.

The film is called Pontypool, a take on the name of the 1998 book Pontypool Changes Everything.

Burgess, in an interview at his King Street South home last week, said he's excited about the movie and the fact it will be shown at one of the best-known film festivals in the world.

So what's Pontypool all about?

Well, for starters, the story is set in the small Ontario community of Pontypool, a village in Kawartha Lakes, located between Lake Scugog and Rice Lake, north of Highway 401.

"It's about a virus spreading through Southern Ontario, resulting in massive numbers of people being unable to speak properly and becoming increasingly violent," Burgess explained. "The virus is actually transmitted through the spoken word."

The movie's tagline is more succinct: Shut up or die.

Burgess, 48, said that he's not really sure where he came up with the story idea for Pontypool.

"I can say though it was something I'd been cooking for a while in my head. I do know I was looking for a very easy way of spreading a virus."

Bruce McDonald is the director of the movie, a Shadow Shows production. The filmmaker has also worked on such well-known shows as Degrassi: The Next Generation and Queer as Folk.

The main character in the story, as in the book, is a man named Grant Mazzy. Mazzy is a news-radio personality who recently lost his job with a national broadcasting company.

"He's sort of starting over again at this small town radio station in Pontypool," Burgess said.

"He's a guy who is late in his career and he's having to reinvent himself and suddenly this virus appears."

Playing Mazzy is Canadian actor Stephen McHattie, who Burgess said did a wonderful job at bringing the character to life on the big screen.

It was through his book editor at Toronto-based ECW that Burgess said he first met McDonald - the film's director - who took an option to turn the story into a film. That happened about 10 years ago, he added, saying it was only recently, when private funding for the project was secured, that production started.

Burgess said he spent February and March of this year writing the script.

While some writers struggle to turn their books into scripts, Burgess said he generally enjoyed the process.

"From day one I thought the book is a book. Let's make a movie. I realize you can't take everything in the book, for various reasons, and put it into the movie. You want to read the book, read the book. You want to watch the movie, watch the movie. That said, I tried to keep the movie true to the spirit of the book," he explained.

Shooting on the project started in March, Burgess said, adding that many of the film's exterior shots were done in Stayner.

Burgess said Stayner worked for the exterior shots because it's a small town. The fact there was still snow - and the story is set in the winter - also worked.

Local residents watching the film will recognize Stayner, he added.

Burgess noted that several locals are featured in the shots, including Jack and Ellen Craig and Jean Warden.

"The rest of it we shot in a church basement in the west end of Toronto," he said. "This was in May. We built a radio station in the church and shot for three-and-a-half weeks."

While there are some gory scenes in the movie, Burgess said the story contains more dialogue and psychological scariness than anything else.

When the film will be seen in theatres isn't clear yet but Burgess said Maple Pictures has bought the rights for distribution in Canada.

Burgess said it will be interesting to see if any international distributors attending the film festival in Toronto pick up the film.

He also pointed out that CBC Radio has agreed to do a radio version of Pontypool sometime in the fall but at this point he has no details about when that will air.

Quick Facts
Tony Burgess is a Toronto native who moved to the area 10 years ago.
His other books include The Hellmouths of Bewdley in 1997, Caeserea in 1999 and Fiction for Lovers in 2003.
He is currently working on two other books, Ravenna Gets and Idaho Winter.