A warm spring has arrived in a Montana ski town and it’s melting the ice that held some sharks frozen in a remote cave. One shark has already gotten loose and gone on a feeding frenzy — and the ice that traps other sharks is melting fast.
It sets the stage for “Sharktana,” a horror movie that will start shooting on Monday at the Lost Horse Lodge, located about 60 miles south of Missoula in Hamilton.
Whether the sharks will match off against one of Montana’s ferocious beasts, well, you may have to wait a bit to find out.
But if you think it’s highly unlikely that a bunch of skiers and snowboarders must race to escape the wrath of hungry sharks, consider the odds of a first-time screenwriter seeing his idea on-screen.
“I can’t tell you how exciting it’s been,” said Robert Shippy, who dreamed up the idea of putting sharks on a ski slope.
Like many great ideas, Shippy can’t pinpoint one exact source of inspiration, though watching “Sharknado” and the downtime he had while working as a chairlift operator for 14 years at Lost Trail Ski Resort in Sula, Montana surely played a role.
“I thought, ‘Sharks in the snow would be cool,’” Shippy said. “In the water, people don’t stand a chance against the sharks, but skiers might have a chance against them in the snow, and you could have some pretty good race scenes.”
Several years ago, Shippy wrote his first-ever movie script, intending to grab a GoPro and some friends and make a movie that was as silly as possible, but with a serious goal: He wanted to use any proceeds from the movie to benefit ski patrollers.
Shippy sufficiently intrigued Allison Whitmer, film commissioner at the Montana Film Office, with an elevator pitch for “Sharktana” and things started snowballing from there.
“It’s fun to think of it,” Shippy said of how everything came together. “I can’t tell you how many people were ‘Doubting Thomases.’”
‘This Is Interesting…’
Whitmer undoubtedly has a knack as a matchmaker of sorts; she connected Shippy with Christian Ackerman, an award-winning filmmaker who owns Hamilton-based FastCoast Productions.
“I think she knew I was the wild card,” said Ackerman, who has a long list of credits for writing, directing, acting in, and producing independent horror movies.
When Shippy’s “Sharktana” movie script first landed on his desk nearly two years ago, Ackerman was intrigued as much by the story as he was by all the effort Shippy had poured into the idea — including the custom t-shirts and stickers he designed to drum up a bit of hype.
“I was already like, ‘This is interesting…’” Ackerman recalled.
But Ackerman had never brought someone else’s vision to life, so he looped in Kyle Weingart, who owns 99 Productions, another Hamilton-based production company, and with whom he’d recently worked with on the 2025 film, “Cuisine de la 'Pocalypse.”
The group secured a $40,000 Big Sky Film grant from the Montana Film Office for “Sharktana” with Ackerman commissioned as the director — meaning he’d be treading into uncharted waters, much like the sharks in snow.
“This is my first time doing somebody else’s idea,” Ackerman said. “I’m honored they wanted me to direct it.”
More ‘Tremors’ Than ‘Jaws’
For both Shippy and Ackerman, this project offers an opportunity to pay homage to some of the memorable horror movies of their youths. While the experience of watching “Jaws” in the theater as a kid kept Shippy out of the ocean, classics from the 80s and 90s like “Ghostbusters,” “Alien,” and “Jurassic Park” sparked Ackerman’s desire to get into the movie-making business.
Ackerman will draw inspiration from some of his favorite horror films and directors for “Sharktana,” with creatures that are more similar to “Tremors” than “Jaws.”
Creating sharks that viewers know are fake but seem plausibly real may be easier than contending with another challenge: Montana’s unseasonably warm winter.
Snow or no snow, the show must go on and Ackerman will figure out a workaround, if need be. “We’ll do what we need to do,” he said.
More to Come
This 'can-do' spirit is backed by a groundswell of local support — including plenty of community members eager to fulfill Ackerman’s casting calls for victims willing to be devoured by sharks in the snow."
Ackerman will star, while Shippy has a cameo, and they’ve enlisted family and friends in the movie which will be as comedic as it is horrific. “You can tell we’re having fun when you watch our movies,” Ackerman said.
The group hopes “Sharktana” is a first course of a larger monster franchise of sorts, serving as a pilot for future rampages like “Mosquitana,” “Piranhatana,” “Dynotana” or “Bigfootana” — and they haven’t ruled out taking the carnage south to Wyoming.
“If this goes well, which I know it will, there will be more,” Ackerman said.
And that means Shippy will finally fulfill the humble goal that inspired this whole crazy idea in the first place.
“Now we’ll be able to make a really good donation to the ski patrol,” he said.
Anna-Louise Jackson can be reached at: Jackson.Anna@gmail.com
