Question about casting a certain ethnic group.

[harmonica44]

I am wanting to direct my own film. It's an micro budget action suspense thriller and the story is set in Montreal, Canada, mostly because of some of the culture, that fits the criminals and types of organizations that could exist there.

Now I don't live anywhere near Montreal and can't afford to travel there to film the movie, so I will have to shoot locally and fake the locations, as best I can. I live in Saskatoon, Canada. However, I will have to hire actors here, and most people here, are white which is okay, but the accents are totally different. Now in The Hunt For Red October, almost none of the Russian characters had Russian accents. In Valkyrie, almost none of the Germans had German accents. However those movies had big names and big production values.

Would a newcomer making his first feature, still be able to produce the same effect? Nobody minded that the characters accents were totally fake in a big production but will it come off as amateur for a newcomer, to most critics, producers, and distributors?

 

[harmonica44]

For sure, thanks, for all the suggestions. What about 9/11 though? Would it lead to war if the terrorists attacked Saskatoon, instead of two major cities, with more governmental targets? Cause if attacking Saskatoon won't cause as much of a raucous, maybe then it's not the place to set it.