A pair of producers is hoping to put together a show that reflects a more authentic Alaskan experience than what is prevalent in reality television nowadays.

The Sitka TV Show is just entering development, and its creators want to combine Hollywood know-how with local talent to produce a six-part anthology series that redefines how viewers see Alaskans.

By now most Sitkans have seen the movie The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

Scene: The Proposal, Betty White inviting Sandra Bullock to dance.

And if you haven’t, well it will always be there for a rainy day. As a work of fiction, The Proposal is entertaining — and as a work of fiction its connection to reality, especially in Sitka where the story unfolds, is minimal. This scene where Betty White performs a Tlingit song by Sitka composer Ed Littlefield is a close as it gets.

Except for some b-roll, the entire film was shot on the East Coast.

“That’s why it’s so important for us to shoot it here,” said independent producer Helena Sardinha in remarks to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce. “Not to shoot it in Massachusetts and pretend that it’s here.”

Helena Sardinha and her partner Rafael Thomaseto are originally from Brazil, but are now Los Angeles-based independent filmmakers. The Sitka TV Show will be a work of fiction, but it is one they want to feel very grounded in the community. Sardinha describes Sitka as a character in the story.

“There is a sense of honesty on the screen that will come through when we have actual Alaskan people working with us,” said Sardinha. “The vision that I have from Sitka, being from another country, is completely different than some of you guys here that live and breathe this air every day.”

See the full presentation for The Sitka TV Show.

The project is scaled as an indie: Low budget, but with high expectations. The filmmakers want to assemble a cast and crew of about 20 people — half of whom are industry professionals — and about 50 extras. Their budget for the pilot episode is $291,000.

The format, says Thomaseto, is anthology. Character studies of six individuals in an intertwined storyline.

“We’re aiming to shoot a pilot now,” said Thomaseto. “And in the pilot we’ll have those six characters, five-to-six minutes for each, where their stories are interconnected, and then throughout the other episodes in the season, every episode is about one character only. And then the last one — sometime in the fall — would be about Alaska Day, and everyone comes together and we make a conclusion for the season.”

The producers have hired a screenwriter to develop the stories, which should touch on themes like global warming, discrimination, crime and punishment, and women’s empowerment. So whatever the Sitka TV Show turns out to be, it won’t be Ice Road Truckers. Sardinha and Thomaseto came to Sitka at the invitation of family friends — Patricia Buak and her husband, Tony, who bought a restaurant here in 2015 and are backing the development of the show. Patricia Buak is billed as the show’s executive producer.

In their presentation to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce, Sarhinha and Thomeseto were candid about the benefits of local sponsorship.

“If we get the money from Hollywood or other international investors that we might connect with,” Sardinha explained, “that honesty that I was talking about before, and that realness, is not going to be on the screen.”

The pair say their goal is to have their pilot episode purchased by a cable television network or a streaming service, which would fund the production of five more episodes over the course of the year — and create an  altogether different kind of proposal for the real town of Sitka.

City Administrator Keith Brady presents a plaque to Captain Ned Tutton, marking the first port of call by the Star Legend to Sitka. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

For the first time, Sitka’s deep water dock is able to accommodate two cruise ships at a time — allowing more passengers to come ashore. That happened today when the Silver Shadow and the 200-passenger Star Legend, making its first port of call, anchored. KCAW’s Emily Kwong reports on the blockbuster connection between the Star Legend and Sitka.

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(Photos being snapped)

Ned Tutton, captain of the Star Legend, and Sitka’s city administrator Keith Brady are shaking hands. Between them is a glass plaque, commemorating the luxury vessel’s maiden voyage to Sitka. But that’s not all that’s shared between them. I’m talking about Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock. 

(Movie trailer for the Proposal: Sweetie, honey. Some proposals change you. Why don’t you get married here tomorrow? Let’s see a kiss!)

Though set in Sitka, very little of the 2009 romcom was filmed on location. Not so with Bullock’s 1997 action film Speed 2, which was filmed aboard this very ship in Key West, Florida.

(Movie trailer for Speed 2: Now, they can’t change course. Seems odd. Yes, it is odd! They’re abandoning ship in the middle of the night)

Then the ship was called the Seabourn Legend. For the evacuation scene, the sprinkler system was used to simulate rainfall.

(Movie trailer: Who is running the ship? Oh yeah, I am)

Guenther Kopf, the hotel general manager aboard, says the boat crew collaborated closely with the film crew to pull it off and after production wrapped, the studio threw a party.

“Sandra Bullock was mixing cocktails, Mr. [Robert] Duvall was flipper burgers on the BBQ grill. We all were issued a t-shirt with Speed 2 on back with all the names of the film crew and all the names of the crew on board. So that was a fantastic event and definitely something you remember,” Kopf said.

The deck of the Star Legend, which caters to 200+ passengers. The ship will make Sitka a regular port of call during its summer travels. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Kopf spends three months at sea and the rest of the year in his native Austria, where he manages his family’s vineyard. After over a decade spent working on big ships, he decided last year it was time to downsize to a smaller, luxury line.

With 104 suites, the Star Legend was purchased and renamed by Windstar Cruises in 2013. Kopf calls it a home away from home, speaking glowingly about his 100-person crew.

The bridge of the Star Legend. Propped among the equipment are drawings of whales, which the captain will identify for passengers over the PA system. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

“The crew is so friendly, so accommodating, remembers [guests] names,” Kopf said. “Every single cruise, I have guests coming and say, ‘Oh my goodness, I was three years ago on a cruise in Tahiti and I come into the dining room and Esther the waitress says, ‘Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, how are you? You remember me?’ And they say, ‘How is this possible.’”

Windstar Cruises is exactly the kind of boutique line Sitka hopes to draw to its shores. Rachel Roy with the Sitka Chamber of Commerce says the last time Windstar Cruises came to Sitka was in the 1980s.

“They were really happy to have a dock to dock to when they were in town. That was one thing they looked at. They will be in Sitka every itinerary they have this season,” Roy said.

That includes local excursions and a performance on board by the Naa Kahidi dancers. Roy adds that when visitors inevitably ask about the Proposals, she talks about how the character of the town portrayed in the film is spot on. But luckily, she adds, locals don’t get internet from a coin operated machine.