Canadians for first MIP-Asia

Montreal: ‘Canada can really seize some great opportunities,’ says Cinar ceo Micheline Charest, after surveying the unprecedented sales and coproduction activity at last month’s 10th edition of mipcom, the fall international program market.

Charest was particularly pleased with ‘the dynamic bidding’ activity surrounding the $10 million miniseries Million Dollar Babies. Sold ‘sight unseen’ to the Nine Network in Australia, Charest reports multiple negotiations are underway in France, Spain, Holland and other territories.

Cinar made a major breakthrough at mipcom selling all 52 episodes of The Busy World of Richard Scarry to both rai uno, Italy’s largest state broadcaster, and abc in Australia. The deals cover tv and home video/audio releases.

Coproduced with France Animation, in association with Paramount, the high-profile children’s series will benefit from a major publicity campaign in Italy in 1995, says Charest. Wang Films, a new coproducer in the Far East, will distribute in Chinese-speaking markets across Asia. The series has now been sold to broadcasters in 56 countries.

Cinar will be present in Hong Kong for the inaugural MIP-Asia (Nov. 30 to Dec 3). Louis Fournier, Cinar vice-president, distribution, met with broadcasters and potential investors across Asia in late October, with the focus on South Korea.

Atlantis Releasing president Ted Riley reports unprecedented demand for the tv mow Avalanche, which sold out worldwide – including sales to bbc, rai and TF1 in France – in only three days.

‘This year’s market was a level of looniness we’ve never before experienced. Maybe it’s a result of our having gone publicÉbut meetings were scheduled literally every 15 minutes,’ says Riley.

Another action-style mow, Trust in Me, sold to rai, Canal + in France and Antenna 3 in Spain.

Atlantis keyed on its new tv movies at mipcom, and Riley offers the following sound observation: tv movies are generally a ‘conservative medium,’ he says, with international broadcasters showing a marked preference for ‘identifiable genres.’ Outside the genre categories, broadcasters look for ‘exotic elements,’ or background such as the Arctic and Inuit setting for the tv movie Trial at Fortitude Bay.

As for MIP-Asia, Atlantis will launch a new mow, Following Her Heart, which will be broadcast on nbc and stars Ann-Margret.

Riley, who will be a ‘coproduction’ panelist at the Hong Kong market, says, ‘I’m going there to learn, as much as I am to sell.’

‘For us, mipcom was explosive, not just a gradual increase, but truly explosive,’ says Andy Thomson, president of Great North Communications, Edmonton. This year was the company’s first with a stand at mipcom, and Thomson reports ‘a high volume of sales closed right at the market.’

Highlights include the sale of 22 hours of documentaries to Argentina, the sale of eight titles to pbs stations across the u.s., ‘while a large sale to Mexico and the new hbo channel in Hungary are also in the works,’ says Thomson.

‘Certainly the trend in documentaries is towards a demand for more volume, because of the new specialty channels. It’s made a big difference for us, because it’s the first time we had some volume,’ says Thomson.

He says Great North plans to increase its 140-title catalogue by 40 to 50 new titles annually, and will double the number of markets it attends next year.

Cambium Releasing director of distribution Rita Carbone Fleury had a highly charged mipcom, selling 65 half-hours of the kids’ sitcom/musical series Eric’s World to M-Net in South Africa. ‘A German company expressed interest in acquiring format rights,’ she says.

Cambium also reports several public broadcasters at mipcom asked for cassettes of the critically acclaimed National Film Board art history documentary By Woman’s Hand, while Fleury met with potential European coproducers for extended series production on Nilus the Sandman, produced in Canada by Toronto-based Cambium Film and Video and Vancouver’s Delaney and Friends.

Via Le Monde president Daniel Bertolino says he’ll attend MIP-Asia to presell L’Histoire du futur (The History of the Future), a 65 half-hour anthology on the 21st century. The series will be coproduced with France in the coming year.

Bertolino says Via Le Monde will continue to specialize in long-form social/political tv series such as the new 26 half-hour L’Afrique de toutes facons. He says there’s strong demand for volume on the part of new specialty channels.

Mediamax International president Jean-Guy Jacques reports an incredibly busy mipcom. He estimates the four-year-old export company will do total sales of $4.8 million in 1994.

Highlights for Mediamax this fall include the acquisition of world rights to The Reppies, a new u.s. animation/puppet series, and keen interest worldwide in the lady duck/detective series Miss Mallard Mysteries. Produced by Gordon Martin and Associates, Montreal, and based on the popular books of American author Robert Quackenbush.

Portfolio Film and Television president Lisa Olfman brought eight new documentaries to mipcom. Two of the stronger titles in the Portfolio catalogue were Darrell Varga’s Hunters and Gatherers, which had 15 purchase offers at the market, and Travelling Alone in America, a documentary on women in vulnerable situations.

John A. Delmage, executive producer on the delightful ytv children’s series Groundling Marsh, and coproducer Olfman held talks on a potential second and third season with interested parties from the u.s., the u.k., and elsewhere. ‘We’re looking for cofinancing partners with some creative input from an American partner,’ says Olfman, who attended her third mipcom with partner Joy Rosen.

Edmonton indie producers Geoff Le Boutillier and Michael Sulyma of Tohaventa Holdings were in Cannes prepping a new figure skating special, The Samurai’s Daughter, narrated by The Karate Kid’s Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita. The Western Canadian producers also met with Holland’s Blue Horse Productions to discuss a North American version of two Dutch sitcoms, Say Ah and Double Trouble.

‘Making coproduction deals at mip and mipcom is difficult, but when you do latch on to creative spirits in the midst of all the mercantile ones, it’s truly magic,’ says Le Boutillier.

Veteran producer Les Harris, president of Toronto’s Canamedia Productions, says there was ‘a lot of interest in new programming at the market this year. I have a feeling we’ve done well. It’s such a rush market.’

At mipcom, Harris sold Take Off, a youth ‘adventure in themes’ show produced by Friday Street Productions, Vancouver, to Hong Kong cable and Irish tv. And Harris was very enthusiastic about meetings with two major u.s. buyers for both the video and tv rights.

‘A sale could be worth up to $50,000 an episode just for the tv rights in the u.s.,’ says Harris, who did the leg work for Take Off by syndicating the series to 14 different broadcasters across Canada.

Malofilm International vice-president sales and acquisitions, Marie-Claude Poulin, reports the Quebec box office hit Louis 19, le roi des ondes (Louis 19, King of the Air Waves) sold to Latin America and Scandinavia while the b.c. feature The Lotus Eaters sold to major territories in both Europe and Asia.

Malofilm

The Young Adventurers was sold to Asia, as was the mow The Way of Duty. For The Moment, a wartime tale of love between a young Aussie and a married woman, sold in Europe and South Africa, while Henry and Verlin, a touching story set in rural Ontario, was sold to Latin America and Asia.

For the upcoming MIP-Asia, Poulin says Malofilm’s lineup of family features and mows appears to be in line with changing Asian tastes. Up to now, demand largely focused on action and genre movies, she says.

‘The emergence of new television stations should also increase demand for product other than action and science fiction. By being at MIP-Asia, we can meet buyers and find out first-hand what they’re looking for, but more importantly, what they will be looking for in the future,’ says Poulin.

Owl Communications executive producer Annabel Slaight closed a coproduction deal at mipcom for Mighty Mites. Based on the long-running comic strip in owl magazine, 13 half-hours will be coproduced with Tyne Tees Television and Animus Entertainment, both of the u.k. Apparently, the veteran producer is now seeking a Canadian broadcaster.

Andrew Cochran, president of Halifax-based Cochran Entertainment, says MIPCOM Junior, the two-year-old, two-day children’s market which immediately precedes mipcom, attracted more than 190 buyers this year, offering sellers heightened visibility.

‘During the market we received a list of who had screened Theodore Tugboat, and frankly, we reached a lot of people we wouldn’t otherwise have met,’ says Cochran.

Produced for $85,000 an episode, Cochran reports M-Net in South Africa picked up 30 new episodes of the preschool series, and says negotiations are underway in the u.s. for both home video and tv rights.

At the market, Telefilm Canada distributed its newly published Guide to U.K. Broadcasters. ‘We had printed 100 copies and they went like hot cakes,’ says an agency spokesperson.