The Wyoming-set Mary O’Hara novel, My Friend Flicka, was adapted to a television series briefly in the mid-1950s. A new feature-length film changes the book’s young boy lead character into a girl, played by Alison Lohman, and the movie also stars country music’s Tim McGraw. The film is scheduled for national release by Twentieth Century Fox in 2006. Shooting, outside of California, was accomplished near Sheridan, Wyoming with on-site assistance from Eaton’s Ranch. The historic dude ranch has been in operation for more than 100 years. Flicka cinematographer Jim Muro (Open Range, Crash) was more than pleased with his Wyoming surroundings. “We have achieved the special magic that we look for on location,” said Muro. Director Michael Mayer (A Home at the End of the World) found just what he wanted in terms of a place that matched O’Hara’s descriptions. ”The incredible prose of the novel - the sentences that she wrote about the look and smell and feel of the land is captured here perfectly,” noted Mayer.

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