European push is on for Paragon

Paragon Entertainment has an Alice Munro mow on the books, a new international children’s series in production and a major output deal in the u.k. near to closing.

While Paragon president Richard Borchiver would not comment on the u.k. deal, it is believed to be with Dandelion Distribution, a television distribution and production company based in London. It is also believed that l.a.-based Paragon president of production, Gary Randall, is in development on television productions with France’s Gaumont and Flach Films.

Borchiver says Paragon is ‘growth-oriented’ and looking to build ‘a permanent presence in Europe. We’ll be at eight or nine, instead of five markets now, with the feature film markets added to our schedule.’

With its recent acquisition of London-based HandMade Films, Paragon appears to be pushing hard into production on the international scene.

Borchiver sees HandMade as Paragon’s ticket into feature film production, and says he plans to do more European coproductions any way he can: ‘As they stand, these relationships (with HandMade’s clients) would lend themselves perfectly to Canadian-British coproductions. But if it doesn’t work out that way, we’ll still finance movies there.’

Back in Canada, Paragon is busy with Lives of Girls and Women, the new mow based on the Munro novel, and the children’s series Kratt’s Creatures, a twist on the documentary wildlife format for kids.

Kratt’s Creatures is a curious blend of documentary, comedy, education and irreverence, a Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure meets National Geographic Explorer. Its creators, Martin and Chris Kratt, are experienced filmmakers and, respectively, zoology and biology majors.

Borchiver says Paragon landed the $8 million, 50-episode project through pbs (to which it supplies Lamb Chop’s Play-Along). Paragon’s development team – Julie Lewis and Randall – got to work and Borchiver started talking to broadcasters. tvontario was first on board. ‘Their commitment to the show made us realize that we could sell this show around the world. Then I went to Telemunchen (Paragon’s German partner on the Forever Knight series) and the same thing happened. With presales between Ontario and Germany, we knew this series could happen.’

Locations for Kratt’s Creatures will range from Australia to Central America with the 18-month production schedule starting up in October. Production and post-production will take place in Ontario.

Lives of Girls and Women, a coproduction with cbc with Raymond Massey producing, is scheduled to roll in Ontario at the end of August. Casting is underway. Ron Wilson is directing the $3 million-plus picture, which will air in the winter of 1995 on cbc.