Montreal: A 15-person crew, including a doctor, skilled underwater divers and filmmakers on board the Sedna leave from the Gulf of St-Lawrence on June 16 for the start of a remarkable six-month scientific and cinematographic adventure through the Arctic Archipelago.

Five films in the Arctic Mission collection will be shot during the voyage, which aims to deepen our understanding of the fragile Arctic ecosystem and the people who live north of the 60th parallel. If all goes as planned, the expedition will arrive in Vancouver in December.

The Sedna, a refurbished, three-masted, 51-meter sailing vessel, has been outfitted with a complete HD production studio with DVC Pro editing suites.

The film collection includes an overview of the journey, The Great Adventure (working title) by director Jean Lemire, an experienced documentary producer, biologist and the mission’s leader; Climatology, a film on climate change in the North by Alain Belhumeur; Lords of the Arctic, a film on Northern wildlife by Caroline Underwood; Peoples of the North, a personal portrait of the indigenous peoples by Carlos Ferrand; and Some Like it Hot, a comparative sociological examination of the cultures and peoples of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres from director Patricio Henriquez.

Arctic Mission (www.nfb.ca/sedna) is produced by Lemire (Glacialis), Eric Michel (National Film Board) and Stephane Milliere (France’s Gedeon Programmes). Delivery is set for September 2003. Public-sector partners on the $6-million project include the Government of Canada, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Television Fund, SODEC and other Quebec ministries. Broadcasters are Tele-Quebec, CBC (The Nature of Things), France 2 and France 5.

An interactive classroom component will be available this fall.

Frederic Back and David Suzuki are honorary presidents of the Arctic Mission project.

Saved by the Belles

Principal photography has wrapped on Ziad Touma’s promising feature film debut Saved by the Belles. A poetically styled drama told in cinema verite fashion, the film is described as ‘a hilariously trashy coming-of-age tale about identity, the search for freedom and the longing for belonging and the makeup of our lives.’

Touma’s story centres on the plight of a young man who has suffered a shock and lost his memory and is befriended by two hard-core denizens of the city’s club scene and nightlife.

Touma shot in popular nightspots in the (Gay) Village, on St-Laurent Boulevard and on Crescent Street, using what he calls ‘a strictly non-professional cast’ – club kids/midnight sweetie caricatures such as ‘the pimp, the dealer, the cool Italian dude, the VIP and the lesbian.’

Leads include Brian Charbonneau, who cowrote the screenplay with Touma, as drag queen Sheena, Karen Simpson as cyberpunk faghag Scarlet and Steven Turpin as boytoy Chris.

DOP Francois Dutil originated in DV CAM PAL. Art direction and costumes are by Christian Legare, with stylings by Corinne Montpetit. Touma produced through his own house Couzin Films. Mahalia Verna is the associate producer. Touma, a former reporter/shooter with specialty channel MusiquePlus, gained wider attention with his critically acclaimed 1999 club-scene docudrama Line-Up.

Saved by the Belles is distributed by Cinema Libre and has been presold to The Movie Network, Super Ecran, Movie Central, Showcase Television and the Independent Film Channel. Funders on the $730,000 movie include Telefilm Canada’s Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program and SODEC’s Jeunes Createurs program.

Tele-theatre from Zingaro

Films Zingaro recently completed taping on a TV adaptation of the Carole Frechette stage play Les Sept Jours de Simon Labrosse (Theatre de la Manufacture), the second of an ARTV/Radio-Canada contemporary tele-theatre triology called Theatre Actuel. It’s the story of a young unemployed man who stages a show with friends as a means of explaining their predicament. Stars include Daniel Parent, Philippe Cousineau and Sophie Varda. Jean Bourbonnais directed over three days (April 25-27) at Studio Centreville. The play was taped in HD by DOP Jerome Sabourin. Producer Pierre Beaudry of Zingaro, a member of the L’Equipe Spectra group and formerly called Productions Sogestalt (Tohu-Bohu, La Princesse Astronaute), says the adaptations are budgeted in the $180,000 to $200,000 range.

The initial entry, Cyberjack (Trans-Theatre), a near-future tale about an alienated hacker seriously fed up with the virtual world, was taped at the end of February.

Upcoming production at Zingaro includes the final entry in the trilogy, as well as Bilan, an ambitious SRC/Tele-Quebec adaptation of the classic Marcel Dube play. It’s slated for an eight-day August shoot under director Lorraine Pintal, Theatre de Nouveau-Monde’s artistic director. The budget is $760,000. The production marks the 50th anniversary of Dube’s landmark writing career, says Beaudry.

Zingaro’s theatre adaptations include Don Quichotte, Durocher le milliardaire, by the late Robert Gravel, and Michel Tremblay’s Albertine en cinq temps, a Banff Rockie Award nominee.

Zingaro projects in development include a TV adaptation of Tremblay’s Chroniques du Plateau Mont-Royal, a miniseries on the life and work of writer Roger Lemelin, the comedy piece Hotel Victor and a feature film project entitled Karma.

Seriously Weird starts production

CineGroupe and Granada Kids (My Parents are Aliens, Don’t Eat the Neighbours) have started production on location in Montreal on 26 half-hours of Seriously Weird, a Canada/U.K. coproduction for the eight-to-12 crowd. The show airs this fall on YTV and in early 2003 on ITV in the U.K. Worldwide distribution is by CineGroupe Distribution and Granada International.

Seriously Weird (aka Strange Tales) is billed as a compelling mix of witty comedy and spooky weirdness based on the adventures of a hyperactive, fish-out-of-water 15-year-old teen who moves from England to North America.

Series creator is British writer Kirstie Falkous (Don’t Eat the Neighbours, My Parents are Aliens, Avenging Angels). The lead director and creative consultant is Erik Canuel (Big Wolf on Campus, Fortier). Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension alumni Adam Weissman and Jim Donovan are slated to direct, among others. Bernard Couture is the DOP and Steve Henry is the production designer. Shooting runs through to mid-November.

Exec producers on Seriously Weird are Robin Spry, president of CineGroupe Images; Peter Pearson; Stephen Andrew, director of programs at Granada Kids; Anne Brogan and Falkous. Christian Gagne (Big Wolf on Campus) and Leon G. Arcand are producing and John Regier is coproducer. Giles Ridge is head of production.

Recent CineGroupe production includes the half-hour, live-action/3D background and effects series Galidor and the Emmy Award-winning series Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat.

Samhain, the extreme cut

Shooting in Montreal wrapped at the end of May after five weeks on the Christain Viel feature Samhain, a horror/slasher entry with a twist of extreme gore and a dash of humor.

Warehouse Films producer/exec producer Bill Mariani, who produced with Dawne Everett and Viel, hopes the low-budget film will emerge as a festival/late-night cult classic.

Spin-off product lines from the movie include an Avatar Press comic book, a rock video of the title tune, performed by Undercover Ways, a movie soundtrack featuring more local bands, and merchandize like baseball caps and T-shirts.

In Samhain (www.samhain.ca), university students on a field trip to the Emerald Isle cross paths with a legendary mutant monster – a cannibalistic creature dredged up from the depths of Irish folklore. Some of the film’s on-screen talent have worked in adult films, essentially a marketing ploy because of the extensive crossover audience for adult and horror movies, says director Viel.

Leads include Richard Grieco (Night at the Roxbury), Chasey Lain, Jenna Jameson, Bobbie Phillips (Baywatch) and Howard Rosenstein. DOP Dan Goyens originated on 35mm.

Montreal’s Maestro FX Studios (The Bone Collector, The Assignment) handled makeup and physical effects. Optical film effects are by Deluxe Laboratories, Toronto.

Exec producer Peter Emerson of Oasis Pictures and Warehouse are sharing distribution in Canada and internationally.

Samhain marks a return for Mariani following last year’s closure of Blackwatch Productions. The film is slated for a theatrical release over the Halloween (Oct. 31) weekend.