Famous expands screens

Famous Players has opened a five-screen state-of-the-art complex in Kelowna, b.c. and a 10-screen facility in La Salle, Que., replete with atm’s and digital sound.

fp president Joe Peixoto says the tenplex acquisition in La Salle, a site developed by Montreal-based Cine Enterprise, is the first of several planned expansions in Quebec.

fp, part of the Viacom entertainment empire, operates 466 screens out of 110 locations.

Half-time at Alliance

Alliance Communications’ six-month results for the period ending Sept. 30, 1994 show a 60% increase in net earnings of $5.2 million compared with $3.3 million for the same period last year.

With the impact of last year’s public offering and this year’s issue of special warrants accounted for, earnings per share were calculated at $0.57 for the second six months of fiscal 1994 compared with $0.54 for the first half of ’93.

Strutting his stuff

Dudley the Dragon, star of Breakthrough Film and Television’s half-hour kid’s tv show The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon, will greet over two million spectators as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Nov. 24. The annual event is televised nationally on nbc and cbs in the u.s.

Cineplex slump

Third-quarter results for Cineplex Corporation indicate a decline in revenue for the company.

For the three-month period ended Sept. 30, revenues were us$163.78 million compared with us$166.9 for the third quarter of 1993. The further drop in the Canadian dollar is said to account for the us$2.5 million loss. Net income for the third quarter was us$5.8 million or us$0.05 per share; 1993’s third-quarter net income was us$2.73 million or us$0.03 per share (which included a loss of us$0.06 per share from discontinued operations).

Imax trades on TSE

Days before the Nov. 18 launch of the Sony imax theater in New York City, Imax Corporation, the large-format giant, started trading common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange under symbol imx. Since its public offering last June, Imax has been trading on nasdaq in the u.s.

Two vie for Emmys

Two Canadian productions have been nominated for the 1994 International Emmy Awards.

Shadows and Light: Joaquin Rodrigo at 90, coproduced by Toronto’s Rhombus Media and Germany’s zdf, was nominated in the arts documentary category. It is up against Positive Art (abc, Australia) and Without Walls: Theremin – An Electronic Odyssey (Steve Martin Productions for Channel Four Television, u.k.).

Three episodes of Water Street Productions’ The Odyssey have been nominated in the children and young people category. Competition comes from two episodes of Insektors (Fantome, France) and three episodes of The Borrowers (bbc, u.k.).

The winners in the six program categories of the International Emmys will be announced at an awards gala in New York City on Nov. 21.

Coproduction news

Astral Communications and France 3 have signed a three-year agreement to create high-quality television programming for the North American and world markets. According to Astral chairman Harold Greenberg, the deal formalizes a long-standing relationship between the two organizations to develop and finance Canada-France coproductions.

Among the programs slated for development are the animated series Quasimodo and movies and programs based on the Tales of the Wild series. The first six Tales movies, based on the works of Jack London and James Oliver Curwood, were shot in Montreal and France by Cinevideo Plus in association with France’s Gaumont and Ellipse.

ACT weekend

The Alliance for Children and Television will hold the first edition of Tele-Jeune, a weekend of screenings, workshops and conferences on innovation in children’s television organized by the act’s Montreal office. The event takes place in Montreal Nov. 25-27, with program creators attending from Denmark, France, Holland and Israel.

Workshop animators include Micheline Charest of Cinar Films, Louise Ducharme and Monique Lalande. A number of leading international children’s tv programs will be screened at the event – 23 in total.

For information call the act Montreal office at (514) 844-6513.