A snapshot can only capture so much – what’s out of frame can be equally intriguing.

This year’s production snapshots from the West os not intended to be all-inclusive, space and time just don’t permit. But we do hope the following represents a good cross-section of projects from Western Canadian producers you’ll hear pitched as you sashay up to the buffet to see what’s cooking along with the beef at the annual Banff Television Festival bbq.

Guy’s back!

Guy Maddin, the Winnipeg-based filmmaker who brought us the truly strange art house cult favorites Tales From Gimli Hospital, Archangel and Careful, is back and applying his creative talents to the small screen. Heck, if David Lynch can do it so can Maddin.

Never an artist to avoid squeamish topics, Maddin’s first tv effort is The Hands Of Ida, a contemporary urban thriller that explores the issue of violence between the sexes when the coin gets flipped and men start looking over their shoulders in fear of a vigilante group of women.

Quips Maddin, ‘I think it’s a good tv show to watch with your date.’

Written by Winnipeg musician and composer Gerry Atwell, the script was chosen from 19 submissions as the winner of Prairie Wave II, a competition for the development of new short drama sponsored by Manitoba funding agency cido and broadcaster cknd-tv. Ritchard Findlay will produce the film with a mere six days of shooting beginning June 18.

Hot wired

Anyone who’s ever met the four female dynamos of Vancouver’s Forefront Productions, creators of the teen dramatic series Madison, knows they’re wired. But now they’ve got a techno series to prove it.

Wired, in development with broadcaster WIC Western International Communications, is a high-tech concept about a teenage girl with a computer who can regenerate historical figures who help her out of her adolescent escapades.

Producer Helena Cynamon, who says the concept was originally inspired by the 1970s Patrick Watson series Witness To History, describes Wired as Bewitched in a modern setting. ‘We wanted to capture kids’ interest in history, and we felt an entertaining story was the best way to do it.’

Forefront has also jumped on the multimedia bandwagon with Wired, bringing in a consultant to help develop a cd-rom component. With the launch of this project, Forefront is forming a new-product division to focus on the development of ancillary multimedia and merchandising markets.

Earlier this spring, CanWest Global dropped Madison as it was entering its third season to pursue new projects. At press time, wic was considering picking up where CanWest left off on the award-winning series.

Cynamon reports The Disney Channel in the u.s. has also requested a series proposal for a one-hour family dramatic series to replace Road To Avonlea when that series order runs out.

Once In a Blue Moon

Ark Films sets sail on a busy summer of production after wrapping principal photography this month on the low-budget feature Once In a Blue Moon, written and directed by Philip Spink.

Set in 1967, the whimsical dramatic comedy explores the vivid fantasy world of Peter Piper, a precocious and creative nine-year-old who forms a special friendship with a lonely Native foster child who comes to live with his family. Together they plan to build a rocket to the moon to seek revenge on the neighborhood bullies.

Jane Charles (Cyberteens In Love) produced and Ark president Alan Morinis executive produced. Malofilm Distribution has picked up domestic rights.

Ark’s next project to lift anchor will be the feature Dimitriana, to be directed by Roger Spottiswood (Mesmer, The Band Played On).

Dimitriana is the story of a Dukhobor woman who decides to walk from Canada to Russia to bury the ashes of her father who was killed in a train explosion. Along the way she falls in love and is torn between her passion and her mission.

French actress Anne Parillaud (La Femme Nikita) has been cast in the lead. l.a.-based Canadian writer Darryl Henry has completed the script and financing is in place for a late fall shoot in b.c. Morinis and Charles will produce.

Morinis says come hell or high water he’ll also be in production next winter on the tv movie Shakin All Over, developed with cbc. Written by David King (Harmony Cats), it’s another coming-of-age story set in Winnipeg in 1964. HmmÉhaven’t we already see that one?

Run Wild

Wild Boys, an alternative contemporary western described as a cross between Reservoir Dogs and A Fistful of Dollars, could be the first Saskatchewan/b.c. interprovincial coproduction if the deal between coproducers Heartland Motion Pictures of Regina and Vancouver’s Spectra Communications gets the go ahead.

Victor Nicolle is completing the polish on the script, which has started to attract a good deal of interest internationally. Brother Doug Nicolle will produce the $2 million budgeted theatrical feature with Stephen Onda from Heartland.

Set in the late 1800s, Wild Boys is loosely based on the true story of the MacLean Gang, four half-breed brothers who decide to rebel when a wealthy and powerful white land baron tries to confiscate their land.

A director has yet to be finalized, but casting is already underway in the aboriginal community. Production in Saskatchewan is planned for late ’95.

Negotiations with Canadian distributors continue.

Meanwhile, Heartland producers Stephen Hall and Onda just got the nod to begin production on another 10 half-hour episodes of Utopia Cafe, a youth-oriented contemporary culture series being coproduced with cbc. The network series attracted a great deal of interest at mip-tv from British broadcasters who are now considering importing the concept for a British version.

Hard labor

Following last year’s nightmare collapse of the theatrical feature Be Fabulous Or Die (formerly Prom Night Of The Living Dead) when financing fell through at the 11th hour, it looks like the teen drama scripted by award-winning playwright Brad Fraser (Love and Human Remains) is going to be reincarnated this year – only in a ‘dramatically’ different form.

No longer will it be the ambitious camp musical starring Quebec teen singing sensation Mitsou. Instead, Edmonton producers Norm Fassbender and Kate Holowach are bringing it to life as a low-budget (less than $1 million) drama for pay-tv with strong comedic and musical elements and lots of special effects.

Veteran Alberta producer Arvi Liimatainen has been brought on as executive producer in the hopes of giving funding agencies a good push to get it moving and into production in Edmonton by August.

All that glitters

Who says service work doesn’t pay off? Last summer the aforementioned Liimatainen worked for l.a.-based Green Epstein Productions as a line producer on the tv movie How The West Was Fun, which filmed in Alberta. This summer he’s just signed a deal with abc to work for Green Epstein again, but this time Liimatainen’s producing a script he’s been developing for several years.

Conceived and scripted by Kaslo, b.c.-based writer Pete White, The Ruby Silver is an action/family adventure that follows four fortune seekers who set out on a search for a legendary silver mine only to discover all that is silver does not necessarily shine.

Even though the film is set in b.c., it will be shot outside Calgary in early August. A director has yet to be announced.

At the post

Alberta producer Doug MacLeod and director Randy Bradshaw are completing post-production on their tv movie The Song Spinner, due for delivery to Showtime in the u.s. by early August.

The duo is also in the final stages of development on another high-quality family tv movie and a series proposal (as yet unnamed) aimed at the children’s market.

MacLeod and producer Tom Dent-Cox, partners in Edmonton-based Alberta Filmworks, begin production June 20 in Bragg Creek, Alta. on another 16 episodes of the one-hour tv drama North of 60, coproduced by Alliance Communications .

Laugh it up

Was King Of Kensington really the last successful sitcom produced in Canada? Now with so many Canadian comedians and comedy writers making it big south of the border, Alberta producers Glynis Whiting and Tom Dent-Cox are trying to repatriate a little of that talent to give their Canadian-made sitcom, Nobody’s Business, the right kind of laughs.

After nearly two years in development, WDC Entertainment will shoot the sitcom pilot before a live audience in Edmonton for three days at the end of August.

The cast, and writers Paul Wayne, Edgar Lyle and Hart Hansen, have been rehearsing and fine-tuning the script with Toronto-based director Perry Rosemond, one of the creators of King of Kenisington and a frequent director on The Royal Canadian Airfarce.

Whiting probably needs a few good laughs after directing Eugenics (working title), a documentary for the National Film Board and cbc’s Witness series about the forced sterilization of the mentally handicapped in Canada during the 1950s.

Life in the Great North

Andy Thomson, president of Edmonton-based Great North Productions, hopes to have two series shooting back-to-back in coming months.

One of the projects, Jake and the Kid, based on a story by W.O. Mitchell and coproduced with Nelvana of Toronto, is now fully financed, pending confirmation of Telefilm Canada participation, with CanWest Global as the Canadian broadcaster.

Casting is underway and they hope to begin production later this summer.

After CanWest passed on Destiny Ridge for a third season, rival Western broadcaster WIC Western International Communications is seriously considering picking up the dramatic series. Destiny garnered decent ratings in its second year and is a perfect fit for wic, which earlier this spring had its knuckles rapped by the crtc for insufficient support of Canadian productions.

Thomson says investing in a series that’s already doing well eliminates most of the risk involved in developing a new series. Production is slated to follow the wrap of Jake in December.

On the boards for production next March is an Irish/Canadian treaty coproduction entitled The Voyage of Naparima with Aisling Films of Belfast. and Toronto-based Atlantis Films.

The four-hour miniseries is set during the great potato famine of 1847 and tells the story of the starving Irish who were shipped to Canada on fever ships and unloaded on a quarantined island in the St. Lawrence River where many of them died.

The CTV Television Network has come on board as the Canadian broadcaster. Turner Broadcasting in the u.s. has also expressed ‘serious interest,’ but wants the cast pinned down first before committing to the project.

Pending broadcaster participation in Ireland and Canada, production is set for March ’96.

Really big stars

Dinosaurs get the star treatment in a new imax movie, T-Rex: Journey to its Lost World, coproduced by Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures, Cinenova Productions of Toronto and Imax Corporation. The $8.5 million docudrama began preproduction in mid-May, with 15 weeks of production scheduled to begin mid-July in Saskatchewan. At least the producers won’t have to worry about the stars quibbling over who gets the bigger trailer.

Academy-Award winning British director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan) will take the helm, with production duties handled by Jane Armstrong of Cinenova. Cinenova’s David Lint, Imax’s Jonathan Barker and Minds Eye’s Kevin DeWalt take executive producer credits.

Last month, Minds Eye enticed Superchannel director of development Josh Miller to join the company as vp of development. In contrast to most Canadians, Miller appears to be traveling in the opposite direction: he’s moved from New York to l.a., back to Edmonton, and will soon move again, to Regina.

This month he assumes the reins of a new round of development including The Dentist, a sci-fi horror film with a quirky comedic twist coproduced by Cinefin Corp. of Paris and Minds Eye.

l.a.-based director Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist) and producer Mark Borde from Cinefin begin preproduction July 3 in Saskatchewan in preparation for a Sept. 5 start date on principal photography.

Casting is in final negotiations, with Christopher Lloyd (Back To The Future) rumored for the drilling demon role. Orion has already snapped up u.s. theatrical rights.

Blissless

The feature Bliss wrapped production in Vancouver earlier this month. Coproduced by Pacific Motion Pictures of Vancouver and Triumph Releasing in the u.s., the film deals with a young married couple with sex problems who seek help from a therapist to discover the root of their difficulties.

The writer, l.a.-based Lance Young, a former longtime exec with Warner Bros., was taking his first stab at directing, and with Terence Stamp (Priscilla Queen Of The Desert), Sheryl Lee and Craig Sheffer starring, producer Alyne Stewart and line producer Lisa Towers must have had their hands full.

pmp producer Tom Rowe will be trying out the new wave tank at the University of British Columbia later this month to shoot several scenes for The Escape, an upcoming mow for Showtime in the u.s.

The film about a convicted murderer on the run who befriends a woman during a flood stars Patrick Dempsey and Brigitte Bako. Stuart Gillard is directing.

2 for 1

‘Turbans, curry and incense are about as much as most Canadians know about Indian culture, yet as an ethnic group they represent an increasingly large percentage of our country’s population,’ says producer/director Scot McDonald of Vancouver-based Full Frame Productions, when asked about the motivation behind a new half-hour dramatic comedy series with multicultural appeal.

What started as just a kernel of an idea on a flight back from India has now been developed into a series proposal and presentation pilot, being shot later this month in Vancouver. Already it has attracted attention from Indian broadcasters.

2 For 1 is the story of two worlds, two cultures and two very Indian different brothers.

Sonny, the younger flamboyant brother, has been living in Canada for several years, ostensibly running a successful restaurant business.

When he convinces his older brother Dalbhir to leave a secure life in India to join him in the business, Dalbhir arrives in Canada with his entire family in tow only to catch his brother in a web of half-truths, angry creditors and a rundown 12-by-24 pizza take-out joint.

In casting the presentation pilot, McDonald says, ‘I knew we were up against obstacles telling a story that was outside the mainstream, but I was still surprised to find how little this industry reflects the reality and diversity of Canadian society. Agency representation of ethnic actors in Vancouver is practically non-existent.’

Love sells

You’re a young producer, you take a chance and option a book by an author you think is pretty great, but when that author goes on to win Canada and the u.s.’s most prestigious book prizes, bingo, everyone’s interested.

That’s what happened to Winnipeg producer Bruce Duggan who optioned Carol Shield’s Republic Of Love for a feature film prior to her winning the Governor General’s Award and the Pulitzer Prize for her previous novel, Stone Diaries.

Shields is now completing her first script based on her novel. The film is being produced by Vonnie Von Helmolt and Duggan, who will also direct. Production in Winnipeg on this much sought-after love story begins next summer.

The Suburbanator

Sure, Schwarzenegger has The Terminator, but it cost at least $60 million to produce. Alberta director/producer Gary Burns has The Suburbanators, and it only cost him and coproducer John Hazlett a mere $25,000. ‘Yes, it gives new meaning to the term low, low, low budget,’ confesses Hazlett.

The off-beat deadpan comedy feature about the dreary Gen-X existence in suburbia spent roaming the malls, is being described as the Canadian version of Clerks, an American film made for $30,000 which grossed more than $3 million.

Hazlett says while American distributors and press are taking a favorable look at the film, the more conservative Canadian distribs have so far taken a pass.

In the hopes of generating more interest on home turf as they complete post-production, Hazlett has placed a promo clip of the film on the Internet at HTTP://WWW.Canuck.Com/Esalon/Index.HTML.

Far Out

Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side, a half-hour animated special for cbs produced by Mike van den Bos and directed by Marv Newland, scored Vancouver-based International Rocketship the Grand Prix at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival in France earlier this month.

The duo will now collaborate with Seattle-based cartoonist Larson on a second animated special, More Tales, due for production later this summer, as well as a music video for the king of talk radio in the u.s., Howard Stern. I wonder if it was Newland’s Pink Komkommer that caught Stern’s eye?

Lupo returns

Meanwhile, former Rocketship animator Danny Antonucci, who left to form his own Vancouver animation company, a.k.a. Cartoon, is getting ready to start work on a half-hour animated series based on his Lupo The Butcher character with the working title Meat the Family.

Producer Dennis Heaton, who is cowriting the pilot with Antonucci, insists they will be doing the series in Slavic, with English subtitles.

Walkin’ the dogs

Winnipeg’s Credo Entertainment Corporation and Atlantis Films of Toronto wrapped production earlier this month on The Long Way Home, a tv movie for the CTV Television Network, Family Channel and Showtime in the u.s.

Michael Scott (Lost In The Barrens) directed the family drama about a dog caught in the midst of a domestic upheaval. When a company transfer forces a family to move from their home in Manitoba to Australia, their pet dog gets lost in the shuffle and has to make an ‘incredible journey’ on his own to Vancouver.

Shot in Winnipeg and Vancouver, the film was written by Chris Haddock and stars Alan Arkin. Producers are Credo ceo Derek Mazur and Atlantis’ Valerie Gray. Bill Gray of Atlantis is executive producer.

In keeping with the dog theme, Credo is also developing a television series to be shot in Manitoba that’s based on the book My Life as a Dog by Swedish novelist Reidar Jonsson.

Credo producer Kim Todd and Phyllis Laing of Winter Rodes Production will take on the supernatural and an eerie array of special effects to create My Mother’s Ghost, a tv movie based on a book by Margaret Buffie.

Screenwriter Heather Conkie has crafted the script about a young boy who is sent to live with a family in Gimli, Man. after his mother dies. Production is slated for early fall. A director and cast have yet to be announced.