Barna planning drama project: a chronicle of Teamster Kilmury

Laszlo Barna will go into preproduction mid-May on his first drama project in a few years. The Lady is a Teamster: The Diana Kilmury Story, a $3 million mow coproduced with Alliance Productions for cbc, is about the fight the famous Teamster leader took on to clean up the union. Barna says it’s too early to talk directors, cast or even a casting agent, but the production dates are set to start early July in Toronto and shoot for a month. Steven DeNure and Cristine Shipton are producing with Barna, Joe Wiesenfeld wrote and cbc’s Carol Haye is script editor.

Barna-Alper Productions, best known for documentaries, has done smaller dramas but nothing on this scale before, says Barna.

Also in development in the drama department is Portal to Hell, the story of the Westray mine disaster. The feature is at the draft stage with Des Walsh writing. Alliance Releasing is the distributor. Telefilm Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation are in for development funding.

The Westray mine disaster is a hot topic for drama and Barna is not the only one with a project in development on the subject. Producer Alan Burke (Gross Misconduct) is in development on a cbc two-hour mow Giant Mine, a look at the story from the miners’ pov. Martin O’Malley is writing and Atom Egoyan, who directed Gross Misconduct, has talked to Burke about the production.

Branching out

Partners Suzette Couture and Pierre Sarrazin, creators of La Florida, have at least three miniseries and two features in development, and in a new role, have opened their doors to produce writers’ original work from writers.

Couture says just as she and Sarrazin realized they couldn’t write everything they wanted to produce, books and proposals started to arrive.

‘Writers often feel very stifled in terms of doing their best work, and we’re not here to change their material. We want to produce as opposed to taking what they’ve done and manipulate it,’ says Couture.

It’s too early to talk about the projects for this new arm of the company, but not so for their in-house deals, so to speak.

The story of Wild Geese, now a four-hour dramatic miniseries in coproduction with Baton Broadcasting and Stornoway Productions, came to Couture’s attention years ago, but remained on the back burner until cocktail chatter with producer Martha Fusca (of Stornoway) brought it to the boil.

It was at a dinner party that Couture first twigged to the fact that Fusca held the rights to the 1925 Martha Ostenso novel. She pulled her colleague into the washroom for an impromptu meeting and the negotiations started. In the end, it was decided that Couture and Fusca would executive produce, Couture would write and Sarrazin would produce.

The story, set in the Prairies, is about love and loss and obsession, ‘a Faulkner kind of story’ about a family, says Couture. It’s at the draft stage.

Also in the works is an mow in development with abc and Los Angeles-based The Polone-Winer Company. Urban Women/Frontier Men is a fictional tale – although inspired by some recent stories Couture came upon in the media – about three single women who are tired of being unattached and decide to go to an Alaskan outpost of bachelors.

The feature film Duty Free is at the final draft stage, with Sarrazin and Couture writing.

The idea for the comedy came to Sarrazin at the same time as the concept for La Florida – when he was researching the CTV Television Network series The Canadians. It’s about cross-border goods and culture exchanges and is set in the real communities of Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Que.

Problem is, the stories of cross-border trends in the news keep getting better, so the film continues to evolve. Couture says they have to stop somewhere, and now is the time. Especially since they have seen their ideas coincidentally turn up elsewhere – from episodes of Due South to Forrest Gump.

Plans are to shoot on location as early as the fall. Talks are underway with Alliance Releasing, distributor of La Florida.

In production in Vancouver this month is Tailhook, a two-hour mow for abc. It is based on the experiences of Lieutenant Paula Coughlin and her colleagues who were assaulted at convention for navy pilots. Couture says the film examines whether there is ‘a place for women in a warrior cult.’ Larry Shaw is directing and Crescent Pictures’ Harold Tichenor is producing.

Couture and Sarrazin continue to seek projects, partly through the company’s new development person, Diane Titmarsh, a Canadian based in Chicago.

Rolling

Island Fever, a one-hour Warner Bros. pilot about two plainclothes detectives investigating murders, is set to start rolling in Toronto March 16 for a 12-day shoot. Steve Surjik (Kids in the Hall) is directing, Joe Wallenstein is producing and production manager is Marc Bassass, with Hogtown standing in for Long Island.

He shootsÉ

Weeks before the nearly-aborted nhl playoffs should be starting up, cbc is shooting Net Worth, the tale of Detroit Red Wings player Ted Lindsay’s attempt to form the first players union back in 1955. The team owners were not happy, and Lindsay and the five players he teamed up with were either dismissed or traded off to the lowest teams in the league.

Producer Bernard Zukerman optioned the rights to the book of the same name by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths about four years ago to make the two-hour mow. It has been through numerous drafts; the first by Phil Savath, the latest by Don Truckey.

Production on the six-week shoot starts April 3 in Toronto and Kitchener, Ont., with Kitchener’s arena standing in for Maple Leaf Gardens.

Gerard Ciccoritti (Paris, France) is directing, Barry Stone is dop and Arthur Herriot (Dieppe)is the production designer.

Coming to town?

Moll Flanders, an mgm feature written by Pen Densham, may be on the slates for a Toronto shoot this summer. Trilogy Entertainment’s Richard Lewis (not the Whale Music director) is producing with Densham and John Watson. Densham is also directing.