TVO’s new indie production head

envisioning ‘cross-over’ projects

Elke Town is settling into her new position as head of independent production at tvontario with a mandate to produce primetime, primarily non-fiction shows.

Town says she has a very small budget and it’s too early to put out an open call to producers, but she knows what she’s interested in: fact-based projects that involve dramatic storytelling devices (such as The Good Sex Guide, the acclaimed British series tvo ran last winter).

‘Sometimes in Canada there is a lack of cross-over,’ says Town, ‘and I would like to see if there is a way to tie drama writers to non-fiction productions.’

Town, who moved to tvo from Telefilm Canada where she was manager of creative affairs, says she is looking forward to ‘getting her hands into shaping projects.’ She is also interested in eventually bringing producers to tvo who don’t have previous relationships with the station.

Up and away

Toronto Film and Television Office head David Plant says the office has surpassed last year’s production total of $320 million, landing in early September at the $327 million mark.

The cash spent by film and television productions overall is up by more than $100 million from last year, while total volume in the industry is up 46%. Plant says he is hoping to hit $400 million by year-end (perhaps a more realistic goal than the projected $640 million figure announced mid-summer).

There are at least 10 new productions set to start rolling in Ontario within the next month including:

– Atlantis Communications’ new miniseries, Married Life. The four-pack of half-hour comedy dramas for u.s. cable channel Comedy Central starts shooting in mid-October in Toronto.

Written and directed by Ken Finkelman (Airplane II) and produced by Jan Peter Meyboom (production manager on Squawkbox and Wildside), the story centers on a couple who agree to have a reality-based tv show follow their wedding. Married Life is in the process of casting (being handled by Craig Alexander).

– The Human Touch is a new tv movie for USA Network starring Griffin Dunne (After Hours) and Harley Jane Cozak (Parenthood). The futuristic romance is being produced by Joan Carson (21 Jump Street) and written/directed by Richard Kletter.

– Bluehawk, a Canada/German coproduction, will start rolling on Manitoulin Island, in Pembroke, Midland and Kleinburg in late September. The six-hour children’s miniseries for zdf in Germany (and possibly for the Global Network) stars Shawn Mathieson (Pocahontas: The Legend) as a young white boy raised by Native Canadians in the mid 18th century. German producer is Manfred Brey and director is Jeff Authors (White Fang). Production continues through November and resumes in the new year in London, Ont. Robert Appelbe is production manager.

– Jungle Law, a First Ontario Film Distributors feature film, has Jeff Sackman as executive producer and Damian Lee as director/producer. The vendetta legal story, which starts production in Toronto at the end of this month, stars Jeff Wincott and Paco Christian Prieto. Julian Grant and Helder Goncalves are line producing, dop is Russ Goozee and cfp is distributing.

Riis’ pieces

Sharon Riis, the Saskatoon-based writer of an impending 10-hour cbc series called Revenge of the Land, was in Toronto recently hopping to the cbc and fro the Toronto International Film Festival.

Riis and producer of the epic project, cbc’s Bernie Zukerman, were busy at the Mother Corp. tying up details on the final draft of the first six hours of the series and launching into the second draft of the final four hours.

Revenge of the Land was inspired by Maggie Siggins’ Governor General Award-winning novel of the same name. Siggins’ book is the historical tale of a piece of Saskatchewan land from the 19th century to the present. The series, a fictional tale of the settling of the Canadian West, covers 15 years (1885 to 1899) in the lives of a homesteader and a land speculator.

Riis says plans are to shoot exteriors in Saskatchewan and the rest at cbc studios in Toronto. There is no director attached yet and Riis thinks the project may start up production next summer.

On the festival front, Riis was shopping around her feature film script, The Devil’s Punchbowl, which was once a Primedia property. The project nearly expired when Pat Ferns stepped down from the company this summer.

Riis and Roman Bittman of the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation (who will produce the film under his own production company, Mobis Media) are looking for a British coproducer for the film. Riis says the project – based on the true story of a ww ii Metis soldier who goes to England to fight, falls in love with a lost woman and then meets a tragic end – needs to be shot in the u.k.

While there is no concrete news of a coproducer, Riis says there is interest.

Inter-activating producers

The Ontario Film Development Corporation’s recently announced $500,000 new-media program is designed to kick start traditional producers into new-media production. The program, co-ordinated by Geeta Sondhi of the ofdc non-theatrical fund, is ready to receive applications. The deadline for the first round of submissions is Oct. 31.

With a relatively small budget, ceo Alex Raffe says the program is, for now, restricted to development and can participate for a maximum 70% of development up to $35,000, or $50,000 if a project has a distributor in place.

The ofdc is interested in fully interactive projects from Ontario-based producers.

Sondhi says the ofdc has assisted one interactive project, but it was an unusual circumstance. Producers Deborah Day and Bob Krupinski were looking for assistance on Interchef: An Interactive Encyclopedia of International Cooking, and applied to the non-theatrical fund. Sondhi felt it was important to support the project, despite the commercial home consumer market, because it ‘explored crucial factors in the changing non-theatrical market.’ In February, the ofdc offered development assistance with the stipulation that the agency would not come in for production financing.

Tailing the ofdc on the info hypeway is the Toronto Film and Television Office, which has plans underway to hook up the liaison office’s services for new-media producers.

Film commissioner David Plant says: ‘ `Intertainment’ is definitely part of our constituency, and the whole aspect of helping to facilitate interactive productions will become part of the office.’

Plant and his colleagues are consulting with the industry and there should be an announcement in the new year. Plant says he has received a few inquiries to date, some from subcontractors for Nintendo and Sega programs who are based in Toronto but bidding on jobs in l.a.

Triple happiness

Those who claim nothing gets discovered anymore at big film festivals (including the Toronto International Film Festival) may now eat their words.

Mina Shum, the Vancouver-based filmmaker who made a small splash with her short, Me, Mom and Mona at last year’s tiff, has stirred a tidal wave this year with her first feature, Double Happiness.

Not only was it one of the most-discussed films in the tiff press and industry offices, it received two honors at the closing awards brunch: a Special Jury Citation from the Toronto-City Award jury and third place for the Metro Media Award. To top it off, Shum got a $5,000 present from Toronto-City Award ($25,000) winner Atom Egoyan (Exotica), perhaps the most significant accolade of all.

The first tiff press/industry screening of the film left 65 people at the door while most of the other 200-plus press/industry screenings had empty seats when the lights went down.

Producer Steve Hegyes says both public screenings were sold out on the first day of the festival and negotiations with three distributors are going well. Hegyes says he is not only looking for the best deal, but for a distributor ‘who understands the film.’

Some distributors and independent exhibitors were bemoaning the fact they couldn’t get access to the film, either on the big screen or via the two vhs copies floating through the fest.

Meantime, Egoyan, three-time winner of the Toronto-City Award, was another unquestionably hot item at tiff. Aside from the fact that Exotica topped the popularity list for being the very first film to sell out at the festival, a German tv crew from zdf is tailing Egoyan’s every move for a doc on the man himself, and Canal Plus has chosen the filmmaker to represent Canada in its international celebration of 100 years of cinema.