The long saga over the future direction of The Partners’ Film Company will probably take a dramatic new turn within about three weeks’ time.

That’s the deadline by which time a group of minority shareholders will have to put up or shut up.

The group, including Doug Moshoian, Stanley Mestel, George Morita and Michael Schwartz, have represented a particular point of view that has been opposite to that of Partners’ president Don McLean.

The differences came to light towards the end of last summer.

Basically, McLean said he wanted to get closer to Labatt, the majority owner of Partners’, and create a new company that would have a working relationship with the long-format Skyvision production company, also owned by Labatt.

McLean also proposed a new ownership structure in this new vision that didn’t exactly please a lot of partners at Partners’.

All of this built to a rather emotional head just before Christmas, and since then, the company has had two fairly divided camps.

Also since then, lawyers on both sides have been trying to work out a buy-sell agreement. They finally came to terms on Friday, April 8.

And within hours of signing the papers, Labatt came back with its price. Under the conditions that the two groups agreed upon, Labatt was to put a price on the table and the minority group has the right to buy the company at that price. If the group takes a pass, then Labatt buys the remaining shares at the same price.

One source says the company’s value is in the $8 million range.

What’s up for grabs is all of the Partners’, its share in its affiliated companies, plus a 29% share in Partners’ U.S.A.

The group was given 30 days to make its decision.

True to the twisting and turning nature of this story, no sooner did the so-called ‘shotgun’ arrangement get put in motion, than word came out that Moshoian was no longer a part of the minority group. It appears there was some disagreement over operating philosophy.

So now it’s down to five, and, presumably, they will have to now also buy Moshoian’s shares. After Labatt, Moshoian is the single largest shareholder. Labatt owns 50.01%, and the group (with Moshoian) represents a total block of 38%.

Ironically, if you count 30 days from April 8, the deadline becomes May 7, Don McLean’s birthday.

Let’s make this Krystal clear

contrary to word-mysteriously-on-the-street, rumors of David Krystal taking early retirement from the jingle biz are bogus. He hasn’t even had time to rest on his laurels over the just-released Napolean cd he produced, as he simultaneously embarked on a pool of radio and tv spots for Publix (one of which will feature Richie Havens) out of Florida-based agency West, which also enlisted Krystal for some Outback tv spots featuring Rachel Hunter. Another u.s. agency, Atlanta-based Morrisson, has also come to Krystal for a pair of Lake Lanier spots.

Film-wise, the folks in l.a. loved one of Krystal’s compositions, There Are No Angels, so much they’re not only incorporating the piece as the title track but also as the name of a new flick. In fact, Krystal will be composing the entire score for There Are No Angels. It features Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, True Romance) and is being produced by Dai Ichi. And he has three more films in the works…

Two on first

director Glen Schultz, the latest addition to the roster at Damast Gordon and Associates, recently helmed his first spot with the shop. The 30 for Nutrisystem was also the first commercial produced through Peter Holmes’ (formerly Franklin Dallas) new shop, Holmes Donin Alloul. Steve Gordon lit the spot, which I’m assured contains no loose-belt demos.

Giving their all

members of Toronto’s commercial scene pitched in this month to put together a music video promoting X Marks the Spot, a cd that’s being used to raise money for voter education in South Africa. The video, for Toronto musician Devon, was directed by Curtis Wehrfritz and shot by dop Miroslaw Baszak and a volunteer crew.

At the beginning of the month, Wehrfritz and dop Jacques Raybault shot segments around Johannesburg and Soweto (apparently Michael Buckley donated his sister-in-law to help organize things there).

A longer segment, using more of the footage collected in South Africa, will run on CBC Newsworld. Kodak donated film for the project, TOPIX Computer Graphics and Animation added computer graphics, and Revolver took care of post. The cd project was organized by Toronto’s Gregory Nixon.