TORONTO - Canadian director Don Shebib spent years dismissing suggestions he make a sequel to his 1970 film "Goin' Down the Road."

Revisiting the revered blue collar classic just seemed like folly, says the 72-year-old filmmaker, sneering with derision at possible titles such as "Goin' Down the Road 2," or "Son of Goin' Down the Road."

But now, Shebib finds himself returning to his iconic working class characters for "Down the Road Again" -- a film he regards very much as a "prequel" that allows the esteemed director to go back and fix narrative problems he says still bother him about the original.

"'Goin' Down the Road' has lots of flaws in it," Shebib says without getting into specifics during a recent interview at his Toronto home, where he is editing the new film.

"It relied a lot on some clever editing that I did ... to make it work. The script was well-written ... but a lot of it was just, not improvised, but manufactured in other ways."

The original film followed jobless Nova Scotians named Pete (played by Doug McGrath) and Joey (played by Paul Bradley) as they head to Toronto in a Chevy Impala, seeking their fortunes in the big city.

The success they dream of never materializes and the down-on-their-luck duo is forced to take on menial jobs. Desperate and with few prospects, the pair hit the road again as the film concludes, heading further westward.

Shot with just $27,000 cash and a three-man crew, it's become a landmark in Canadian cinema for its gritty portrayal of unemployment, class and migration, and is often credited with launching a new era in homegrown filmmaking.

In "Down the Road Again," the story picks up in Vancouver, where Pete is a retired postman now in his 60s. Joey is gravely ill and when he dies, leaves one last request for his old pal: another road trip, this time eastward. Pete sets out with Joey's now-grown daughter, Betty-Jo, played by former "90210" star Kathleen Robertson. She's the child of Joey's former flame Betty, whom he abandoned when she was pregnant in the first film.

The paternal relationship that develops between Pete and Betty-Jo is the core of the film, says Shebib, but the tale also delves into the backstory of Pete and Joey, the story of another woman Pete was involved with in Nova Scotia 40 years ago, and the real reason Pete left home in the first place.

"It wasn't just to get a better job," he says cryptically. "That all is revealed. It's Joey manipulating everything from his grave because of a guilt that he has of a -- for want of a better word -- 'crime' he committed against Pete that Pete never knew about."

"In that way, it's a very emotional detective story. Pete goes on this journey with these conditions that Joey's set out and doesn't know what he's about to discover. And he discovers something."

McGrath reprises his role as Pete, while original cast members Jayne Eastwood, who played Betty, and Cayle Chernin, as Selina, also return. Also back is the same model car, hand-painted with the words "my Nova Scotia home" on the door, that took the duo west in the first film.

Missing from the film is Bradley, who died in 2003. Nevertheless, his character Joey is a constant presence throughout the film, says Shebib.

"Anything that I was going to write had to deal with his death," Shebib says of Bradley and his character.

"I did keep him alive in the first two or three scenes of the film.... I just used a double for him. You only see him in a phone call that he makes to Pete because he knows that he's got a terminal illness and so he sets out to sort of make amends for his life before he dies."

"It was very emotional for Doug. I think the whole thing was an emotional experience for him."

While the first film is oft-regarded as an indictment on a punishing economy and class system that exploited the poor for cheap labour, Shebib says any specific political arguments that are read into "Goin' Down the Road" are unintentional on his part.

"I'm an extremely right-wing and extremely left-wing person and everything else in the middle. I don't believe in any kind of political philosophy," says Shebib, whose other directing credits include the 1983 biopic "Running Brave," and TV's "Wind at My Back," "Lonesome Dove," and "Night Heat."

"That particular film has a very sort of working class/capitalist basis to it, a labour-capitalist struggle to it, but that was the story, it's not necessarily my particular political bent."

"Down the Road Again" is entirely focused on personal relationships and is a much more emotional story, he says.

This time around, Shebib had a full crew and a budget of $2 million, but he says that's still a small budget by most movie standards.

He says he was convinced to return to his beloved characters when a producer approached him several years ago with an offer to help get the film made.

"So I said, 'OK, I'll sit down and see if I can make up a story that works.' And the pieces fell into place just like dominoes. Very easily, I'm surprised how quickly the story came to me," he says.

"It fits very well with the original film and it makes the original film make much more sense. It makes the original film a better film. If you were to see the two films back-to-back, it'll be interesting because one will play off the other and the second film contributes a lot to what you've seen in the first film."

"Down the Road Again" is expected to hit theatres in 2011.