after 25 years in the business as an agent, Ralph Zimmerman, president of Great North Artists Management, doesn’t believe a star system is in the cards for Canada.

‘We have a structure, we don’t have a system,’ he says. ‘A system means there was a conscious effort to create a methodology to make stars. While it should evolve naturally because of the infrastructures of the business, our business doesn’t work the same way. It’s too decentralized, too intricately woven, and the American system overrides ours.’

Zimmerman and two other agents at gnam, Perry Zimmel and Shane Jaffe, represent producers, writers, performers and directors. Some of the bigger names that adorn their register are Atom Egoyan, Henry Czerny, Sharon Riis, John N. Smith, Brad Fraser, Kate Nelligan and Bernard Zukerman.

Talent abounds in the country, declares Zimmerman, but using the American model means Canada’s foundation is comprised of ‘a number of leaning towers of Pisa. Our systems are skewed because they are not built on what is indigenous.’

Director as star

The opportunity to create a star system is long gone, he continues, but the bright note for Canada right now is the continued rise of the director as a star, especially considering Canada’s healthy crop of helmers.

‘On a per capita basis there are probably more (Canadian) directors that are recognizable than actors,’ he says. ‘In Canada, our auteur system has really come to the fore, and that is something we have to continue to support because most of that product is unique and original.’

He is referring primarily to feature films, a traditionally poor constituency with limited audiences that Zimmerman views as constrained by theatrical distribution. ‘We shouldn’t have tried to imitate the American commercial (box office) success. We have to find another way to distribute feature films, and maybe tv is the answer.’

With the widespread lack of network support for the feature film industry in this country, it’s hardly a simple answer. What Canada needs, he suggests, is something like Britain’s Channel Four.

‘We could have a Channel Four, but we have been too ingrained in reflecting the American competitive system. I don’t think we experimented enough with the Canadian model.’ Is it too late? ‘I don’t know, with a 100-channel universe, it may be the perfect time,’ he replies.

According to this agent, it’s a bit of a dichotomy: Canada should look anywhere but to our neighbors to the south for models, yet the States plays a crucial and often beneficial role in the business. For one, gnam depends heavily on the u.s. for business.

Frequent contact

The Toronto-based agency has a deal with u.s. talent agency icm and is in regular contact with major American agencies caa and William Morris, American production companies and u.s. networks. Zimmerman estimates he and his partners are on the phone to the u.s. at least half of each working day.

When icm approached gnam to become an affiliate about four years ago, Zimmerman was afraid of being swallowed up by the giant (icm has about 200 agents; gnam three). The terms were clear, however, and the question that gnam would remain independent was never an issue.

Zimmerman is happy with the deal, saying it has unquestionably opened doors for gnam clients. Egoyan has a deal packaged in part through icm to direct a feature for Warner Bros. this year, and chances are good he will get to make it at home. A meeting between Nancy Isaak (Liar, Liar) and icm has spun out deals at all three American networks. Smith has two movie deals pending.

There is one example the u.s. has set that Zimmerman feels Canada would do well to follow. ‘They understand the (agency) business,’ he says. ‘The same way the star system suffers here is why the agency system suffers here. Because talent is not perceived as the key drive in a deal, therefore the power of the agencies is not understood.’

The traditional American triangular relationship between agency, producer and talent in packaging a deal is what Zimmerman hopes to see more of here.

While he says things have greatly improved – especially with the larger production companies such as Alliance Communications and Atlantis Communications – he can remember the days, not too long ago, when he literally could not get his hands on a script. ‘Beg, borrow, steal – it didn’t matter, you couldn’t get ahold of a script.’ Producers were secretive, he says, and they would not let the agent in on the project until it was time to put in a request for talent.

There is still a gap in communication that Zimmerman attributes to ‘an insecurity and a lack of maturity and understanding of how the business works.’

‘It’s not just about negotiating a deal or sliding a client into a job,’ he says. ‘There are ways of setting a project up.’

It’s not necessarily about packaging either, which he defines as a nebulous term. ‘There’s not necessarily any one combination that says this is a package. It can be as simple as having a certain director and a script, and for sure it will be cast and will be made. We have always worked with soft packaging.’

Zimmerman says small Canadian producers look to American agents for deals and leave Canada out of the picture. A group called tamac was set up about a year and a half ago, partly in order to keep watch over the Canadian agencies and to see how much flow was going directly to the u.s. without Canada as the middleman.

While Zimmerman was instrumental in the establishment of tamac, he doesn’t see any threat when negotiating with the States.

‘It’s not an issue because they now need us economically in the television strain. There is no question about that because the licence fees now being given out by the networks are not sufficient to cover production costs. The nature of syndication and post rights have changed dramatically and nobody wants to carry a deficit.’

Zimmerman says a project like the miniseries Million Dollar Babies – produced in 1994 by Canadians (Cinar Films and Bernard Zukerman Productions) for an American network with Canadians and Americans sharing the marquee – ‘broke the ice in a major way. It set a standard and now everybody wants to duplicate that standard, but it’s not going to happen overnight.’

It’s part of an overall growth of the industry and cross-border projects that is promising for the future.

‘All of these steps are building blocks in a wall that isn’t formed yet. Hopefully, it’s on its way.’