Whale beached at the box office;

provincial tax scheme flounders

Vancouver: Although Alliance Communications created quite a splash for Whale Music at both the Toronto and Vancouver film festivals, I’m sure all involved were disheartened by its belly flop in Canadian theaters earlier this month.

The film, starring Maury Chaykin and Cyndy Preston, was executive produced by Robert Lantos and David Hauka and produced by Steven DeNure and Raymond Massey. After opening in seven major theaters across Canada, it reportedly grossed a sorrowful $11,000 in its first three days.

That’s a pretty frightening figure given the substantial backing of Canada’s largest production and distribution company, widespread press coverage, relatively kind reviews and opening galas at two major film festivals. What more can you ask for?

I guess one has to wonder why they didn’t test market the film first. In spite of a strong performance by Chaykin and the writing of author Paul Quarrington something fell flat.

Gasping for cash

The proposal for a tax incentive program for b.c’s film and television industry goes before the provincial cabinet later this month, but few government types are expecting great things (if anything) to come of it.

The money will have to come out of the B.C. 21 Fund, administered by Employment Minister Glenn Clark. The fund is designed to stimulate labor-intensive industries, which, of course, the film industry is. But it’s pre-election year, and with stiff competition for funding from other declining industries such as forestry and fisheries, Clark will be weighing his bags of gold with potential votes.

If cabinet does not decide to support a tax incentive scheme out of the 21 Fund, the program will go back to Culture Minister Bill Barlee, who will have to do some creative accounting or ask government for more money to support the program. And if that’s the case, well folks, expect many more delays.

Full deck

Now that Matthew O’Connor, president of Pacific Motion Pictures, has been voted in as chairman of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association’s new b.c. producers branch, he’ll have his hands full tackling the big issues of unionized labor and the need for a provincial tax incentive program as well as stoking the home fires at Vancouver’s largest production company.

pmp is busy editing Glenorky, its first theatrical feature developed in-house. The film was written by Icel Massey and Rick Stevenson (producer of Some Girls, Crooked Hearts and Arctic Blue), who also makes his directing debut on this project.

Executive produced by Tony Allard and produced by O’Connor and Stevenson, Glenorky is scheduled for a test audience screening in December with theatrical release in Canada and the u.s. by l.a.-based Triumph Releasing penned in for late spring of ’95.

In other production news, pmp just wrapped principal photography on Slam Dunk, the latest ‘Ernest’ direct-to-video film directed by John ‘Buster’ Cherry and produced by George Horie and Sharon Haley, and A Christmas Romance, an mow for cbs produced by O’Connor and directed by Sheldon Larry.

This month pmp producers Tom Rowe and Lisa Richardson and director Jorge Montesi begin production on Freefall, an mow based on the 1987 incident in which an Air Canada jet glided onto an air strip in Gimli, Man. after running out of fuel.

Bucking the trend

After Tokyo Cowboy was voted the most popular Canadian film at the recent Vancouver International Film Festival, producers Lodi Butler and Richard Davis thought it would be easier to get a commercial release for their low-budget feature. ‘But it appears there’s just no place for Canadian features in Canadian theaters because they’re too busy showing American films,’ says Butler.

The film, written by Caroline Adderson and directed by first-time helmer Kathy Garneau, is now attracting the attention of another market. Both the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival have invited Tokyo Cowboy to screen. Says Butler: ‘I guess this means we’re politically correct.’

Davis is now busy trying to attract a u.s. distributor for the film while Butler is in development with itv of Edmonton on a tv movie entitled Widdershins, written by another first-timer, Louise Milner, with Davis directing.

Change of pace

Buyers at mifed in Milan, accustomed to North American Releasing’s standard menu of action-adventure and sci-fi flicks, were in for a surprise this year when the Vancouver-based distribution company unveiled Heaven’s Tears, a romantic historical drama. The film about a young Jewish girl who falls in love with the son of a Nazi officer at the outbreak of ww ii, was shot earlier this year in Prague. Directed by Lloyd Simandl, president of North American Pictures, Heaven’s Tears is the company’s first fully self-financed feature film.

Melanie Kilgour, president of distribution for North American Releasing, says while sales were not quite as brisk for their more commercial action fare at mifed, Heaven’s Tears sold to Korea, Brazil, South Africa and Argentina.

North American Pictures wrapped production late last month in Prague, Czechoslovakia on the action-adventure feature Dangerous Prey about a group of women trained as highly effective mercenaries. Directed by Simandl, a Czech native, the film is now posting in Vancouver and due for completion by spring ’95.

Next on North American’s production roster is Do or Die, another action-adventure with a substantially larger budget. Written by Paul Dreskin of Toronto and directed by Michael Mazo, it’s slated to go before the cameras March ’95.