Perth Productions film chronicles internment camp experiences

Mary Leckie, president of the one-person Perth Avenue Productions and producer of Where the Spirit Lives, has three substantial deals in the works.

With plans to produce a theatrical feature, Leckie has just optioned The Way of a Boy, Ernest Hillen’s autobiographical account of a boy in a wwii Japanese internment camp.

Dale Andrews of Westcom Entertainment, Vancouver, is in for development while Leckie starts a search for a coproducer, hopefully in Australia or New Zealand where the anticipated Indonesian shooting locale is familiar territory. Mary’s spouse, Keith Ross Leckie, is writing the screenplay.

More immediate on Perth’s slate is the Canadian-British coproduction, The Blue Castle, based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s novel of the same name. The story is of a young, repressed woman who breaks free from her Presbyterian family when she discovers she is suffering from a heart condition.

Westcom and Richard Jackson of Talisman Films, London, Eng. (Rob Roy) are onside for the $6 million to $7 million theatrical feature. Casting will start Dec. 5 in Toronto under the direction of Deirdre Bowen. Leckie says she is looking for a Canadian to play the lead.

tv series director Eleanore Lindo will helm the shoot and plans are to roll this spring in locations north of Toronto.

Children of My Heart, Leckie’s upcoming mow for the CTV Television Network with Atlantis Films and Max Films of Montreal, is based on the novella by Gabrielle Roy.

Roy’s somewhat autobiographical book tells of an 18-year-old French-Canadian girl who moves to a small Prairie village to teach and stirs up serious controversy when she falls in love with Mederic, one of her Metis students.

Where the Spirit Lives provided Leckie with some good contacts in the local native acting community and she is looking to cast a native as Mederic.

Leckie says a deal with a Quebec broadcaster is still pending, and the late-winter and summer shoot could land in either Ontario or Quebec.

Bogdanovich contribution

Director Peter Bogdanovich is coming to town mid-month to shoot Song of Songs, a segment for the Yorktown Productions/Skyvision Entertainment six-part series, The Painted Word.

Although not confirmed, cast for Bogdanovich’s piece is said to include Ali McGraw, Catherine Deneuve and Ben Gazzara. Shooting is slated to start Dec. 12.

Alan Arkin stars and Paul Sarossy (Exotica) is dop on Norman Jewison’s piece for The Painted Word, Soir Bleu. Jewison’s six-day shoot started Nov. 30 in Toronto.

The series, which calls on six feature film directors to create a 30-minute short inspired by a painting and/or a piece of literature, will likely go to air on Showtime Networks in fall 1995.

Replikating success

It’s not quite official, says Phil Jackson of The Producers Network Associates, but it looks like Replikator 2 will be a go next June. The original Replikator was the first feature for the company, and in light of pna’s latest production slate, appears to have been a pivotal move.

Jackson, who wrote and directed the first pic, says he would love to direct number two, but he may be tied up with Dark Wake, a new $2.6 million sci-fi feature in development.

The story, written by Andrew Dowler, takes place 30 years in the future and centers on a good versus evil battle on a ship crewed by state prisoners. It seems the messengers are carrying toxic waste to Third World countries against their wishes.

The theatrical feature, to be distributed worldwide by Los Angeles-based Cinequanon, will shoot in-studio this spring in Toronto, ‘with a lot of model work,’ says Jackson.

For Replikator 2, Jackson says first choices are to use what went with the first pic, including the Gooderham & Worts buildings and production designer Taavo Soodor. Star Michael St. Gerard ‘would have to be in the film,’ says Jackson. Producers are Daniel D’Or and David McGuire.

The original Replikator, recent winner of six awards at the Charleston Film Festival, is set in the 21st century, where daylight and air are deadly and virtual reality is the only escape.

Jackson says in addition to Rep 2 and Dark Wake he hopes to sign deals for at least four features before 1995. If they all come through, pna may be setting up its own distribution arm.

Accent on comedy

Accent Entertainment head Susan Cavan and Kids in the Hall notable Bruce McCulloch have just wrapped production on four short films for nbc’s Saturday Night Live. McCulloch is writing and directing as well as starring with snl members Michael McKean, Laura Kightlinger and Janeane Garofolo.

Cavan says the four-minute sketches are not so much Kids material as McCulloch originals, such as the performance piece which stars McCulloch in a late-night drunken ode to cult classic Eraserhead.

Onside for the sound track are Bobby Wiseman, former Blue Rodeo keyboard wiz, and Brian Connelly of Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet.

Although the crew was all-Canadian, the only Kids alumnus to work on the sketches was dop David Makin. Cavan says the shorts will be broadcast in January and she and McCulloch are hoping to do four more for snl’s next season.

A Power house

Power Pictures is tapping the inexhaustible reality-based-mow source this month. While the Toronto company is wrapping post-production at Dome Productions and Sounds Interchange on its $4 million mow Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story (formerly Crusader) starring Dana Delaney, Rod Steiger and Henry Czerny, two new mows for the Lifetime Cable Network are gearing up for winter shoots.

Dancing in the Dark, said to be based on somebody’s true story, stars Victoria Principal as a woman who gets wrongly placed in a psychiatric hospital. Bill Corcoran is directing and Julian Marks of Power is producing the us$3 million pic.

A four-week shoot starts Jan. 9. Production manager is Claire George.

Another issue-flavored mow from Power is Silence of Adultery, the tale of a woman who does and then wishes she hadn’t. Preproduction will start up soon with production scheduled to get underway in Toronto in early February.

Marks is producer of the us$2.5 million pic, and he is the only one signed to date. Nelleka Privet will be handling casting.

Nasty Burgers rides the gravy train

James E. Motluck, creator of the $49,000 credit card-financed Nasty Burgers, has just signed over Canadian video rights to Catalyst Entertainment.

Motluck is the quintessential independent filmmaker: he works as a tv writer by day (Road to Avonlea and, most recently, Blue Hawk), and in his spare time he scrapes together his pennies, depends on the kindness of others, and expands the meaning of resourcefulness (i