Playwright Brad Fraser, best known for his hip, fearless plays about sex and sexuality (Poor Superman, Unidentified Human Remains and The True Nature of Love) is deep into the world of cinema these days, and not only as a writer. Fraser is working as an actor, director and producer as well as an editor (he took a film editing workshop with Ingmar Bergman editor Ulla Ryghe).

Beauty, Fraser’s much-publicized movie script for Disney, based on Brian D’Mato’s book of the same name, is not top of mind for him. He finished the script four months ago, and the last he heard it’s over at Fox with producer Roger Davies (What’s Love Got To Do With It) in charge. Fraser figures by this stage, about 400 writers have probably had their hands on it. He isn’t fazed.

What has him charged is a ‘fly-by-night’ project he is making with Daniel MacIvor (Playing House). Shot on a combination of Super 8, High 8, Beta and 16mm, Fraser says Parade is ‘guerrilla filmmaking at its guerrilla-est.’

Coproducers/codirectors MacIvor and Fraser landed on the Gay Pride Day parade in Toronto earlier this summer with nine cameras, four crews and about 30 volunteers to shoot the exteriors for the feature – all in a 12-hour period. It’s a (parade) day in the life of two lovers (MacIvor and Fraser) who hit a crisis point in their relationship, spat and eventually make up.

Fraser and MacIvor are in the midst of editing the exteriors on a suite set up in Fraser’s bachelor apartment. Interiors were shot at the end of July over a three-day period and plans are to have an offline edit ready for Aug. 7. Both unionized artists, Fraser says he and MacIvor ‘just decided to say, ‘Fuck you, we’re going ahead and making this movie.’ We’re sort of thumbing our noses at everyone.’

Fraser hopes to see the film make it onto the festival circuit.

Also on the writer’s plate is a film adaptation of the Brian Johnson story, Our Man in Manila, for Alliance Communications. In Fraser’s script, Johnson – the former Globe and Mail journalist who went to cover child prostitution in the Philippines and wound up a pimp – is a fictional character. ‘I didn’t want to write a biopic,’ says Fraser. ‘It’s more a story about a western man who turns his back on western values.’

The main character is a 21-year-old journalism student who is looking for the father she has never known (the Johnson character). Most of the narrative unfolds through the women in Johnson’s life. Fraser is putting the finishing touches on the first draft and Denise Robert is a possible for the producer role.

A pilot teleplay for Fox for a series called Insomnia is another project in Fraser’s kitty. It’s a late-night adult soap opera produced by Lewis Chesler (The Hitchhiker) and at present it’s sitting on someone’s desk at the network. Fraser wrote the pilot and the bible and cowrote the first 30 weeks of story ideas.

Also looking for a home is a feature film adaptation of Fraser’s play The Ugly Man, currently being shopped around Los Angeles with Fraser attached as director.

Fraser says he would like to see Poor Superman on the screen as well, preferably via a small-budget production which he would direct in order ‘to keep the integrity of the material’ intact. Then again, he says if someone offered him a million dollars for the rights, he’d sell it in a minute. What about that integrity? ‘I have lots of plays,’ he says.

Atlantis moves into Fast Forward

Atlantis isn’t talking, but word is the company has a new tv series set to start shooting in Toronto in August. Fast Forward is an edutainment program about kids and technology for Disney.

T.O. is Radiant City

Warner Bros. has a new mow set to shoot in Toronto at the end of August for four weeks. Radiant City, a family drama with an upbeat take on life, is set in the projects of 1950s New York City. Regent Park will be standing in for the location.

Ali McGraw stars, Bob Ackerman is directing, Geoff Weiss is executive producer and Tim Marks is producing. Production manager is Dave Hood.

House hunting

Whether Remember Me, the Grosso Jacobson mow for cbs, is headed for Ontario this summer all depends on a house. Not just any collection of bricks and mortar, this house takes up a good 57 pages of the script. The real thing has to be about 100 years old and isolated, set on a body of water that could be an ocean with no trees on the shoreline, and it’s got to look haunted and romantic. A widow’s walk would be nice.

Despite the tall order, a location has been found. Problem is the 91-year-old owner wasn’t at home when the locations people came knocking. He was out on the golf course with Jack Nicklaus, says Grosso, and they have been trying to track him down since.

Based on the bestseller by Mary Higgins Clark, the story is about a young family who rents a country house outside Boston for the summer. The ghost of a sea captain’s widow still resides there, and as the young vacationing wife uncovers the widow’s tale, parallel stories unfold. Grosso says this is number one in a franchise of Higgins Clark works for screen adaptation.

Production designer and former location manager Lillian Sarafinchan, who specializes in finding the right locales, has been on the job about three weeks. She’s not alone. Scouting has been going on in Nova Scotia, p