Word is Toronto will host its biggest feature production to date early in 1996 when The Long Kiss Good Night comes to town. A well-placed source says ‘it’s a green light, it’s just a matter of settling some of the details.’

Producer Stephanie Austen (Die Hard II, True Lies), director Renny Harlin and his wife Geena Davis are tied to the actioner that will see Davis in the same sort of role that Schwarzenegger played in True Lies.

Meet the Grizzlies

It’s being touted as a cross between Robocop and Lord Byron and it involves one man, a great big suit (not of the David Byrne variety), six sharpshooters armed with rubber bullets and a burning desire to meet and mingle with grizzly bears – you know, the kind they shoot for mauling sleeping campers.

Project Grizzly is a National Film Board documentary which promises, says producer Michael Allder, to create a new style of non-fiction filmmaking that is peppered with elements of drama and westerns.

It’s about Troy James Hurtubise, a man with a self-declared mission to study grizzlies in their natural environment at closer range than they have ever been studied before. In order to fulfill his dream, this conservationist and bear behavioral specialist has spent the last seven years developing a grizzly-proof suit that he has tested time and again for safety with black bears in order to perfect it.

Donned in his seven feet of metal and surrounded by his team of sharpshooters, Hurtubise, encased in what is suit number seven, will be recorded in October on super 16mm in the Rockies as he approaches migrating grizzlies for the first time.

The location – very remote – requires three to four hours of travel on horseback to reach. The safety considerations are significant, number one being the life expectancy of what is a minimal crew.

Director Peter Lynch (Arrowhead) will be accompanied by cinematographer Tony Wannamaker, 2nd camera Patrick McLaughlin, camera assistant John Konye, Robert Sletcher on sound and Emmet Shiel, production manager and associate producer.

Allder says the team, shooting through ‘very long lenses’ about 200 yards away, will be protected by a company that specializes in big-game hunting.

‘This is no grade-four, meet-the-bears film,’ says executive producer Gerry Flahive. ‘There are no standard interviews. Hurtubise is interviewed as he is either working in the wild or commenting on some aspect of civilization versus nature.’

The idea for the project came to Allder when he encountered Hurtubise’s self-published book, White Tape, a treatise on man and bear. ‘His own research and approach to nature is serious,’ says Flahive. ‘This is not a prank or a publicity stunt.’

Plans are to blow up the finished film to 35mm. While no broadcaster is signed, Allder says he has been talking to the bbc and Channel 4 in the u.k. and Discovery Channel, the cbc and Canal Plus here. Most noteworthy of the offers so far came from a u.k. video distribution company, which reportedly offered cash up front for the video rights. Allder says the film will be completed by January.

Atlantis wrangles Tornado

Atlantis Films has a new mow on the go based on the Ivy Ruckman book, Night of the Twister. Titled Tornado, the mow for Family Channel in the u.s. is about a boy and his dad caught in a tornado that strikes a small town in Nebraska.

Based on a true story, the mow focuses on one horrible night when a series of freak tornadoes pummeled a small town continuously until there was nothing left of the town but rubble.

Principal photography starts Oct. 23 and continues through mid-November. Tim Bond is directing, and production credits go to line producer John Calvert and Mysterious Island producer Sean Ryerson (Beyond Rangoon). Executive producer is Anne Marie laTravers, production designer/coproducer is Stephen Roloff, dop is Peter Benison, Diane Kerbel is casting and Kirsten Marshall is production co-ordinator. At press time, a Canadian broadcaster was not signed.

Plans are to shoot in the Schomberg and Kleinberg areas north of Toronto. Most of the destroying of houses will be computer-generated effects handled by Calibre Digital Design.

New Viacom-connected company launched

Patrick Whitley, head of the Viacom-driven service production company Dufferin Gate, has started up Temple Street, a new production company to put together Cancon material for the international conglomerate’s cable net Showtime.

First on Temple Street’s slate is The Legend of Gator Face, a $2.7 million cable feature for Showtime and mgm directed by Vic Sarin, produced by Whitley and starring John White and Dan Warry-Smith with Paul Winfield.

It is an e.t., says Whitley, but featuring an alligator instead of an alien in the lead. The seven-foot half-alligator/half-man, a small-town swamp legend for at least a quarter of a decade, is mimicked by some bored boys and surfaces to face them. An animatronic gator face was built by Paul Jones. Executive producers are Alan Mruvka and Marilyn Vance, dop is John Travers, production designer is Mariam Wihak and production manager is Reggie Robb. Production wraps Oct. 14.

Also on the go for Whitley are two Dufferin Gate productions:

The Phantoms goes ahead mid-October with Melvin and son Mario van Peebles sharing the helmer’s chair and the marquee. Robert Lawrence is producing, Brian Gibson is production manager, production designer is Rocco Matteo and Claire Walker is casting. The shoot wraps Nov. 10.

Escape Clause, an insurance whodunit, stars Andrew McCarthy, with Brian Trenchard-Smith directing, Whitley line producing, production designer Ian Brock and production manager Laurie McLarty. Executive producer/ writer is Danilo Bach. Jon Cumerford and Tina Gerussi are both handling casting. Shoot dates are Oct. 23 through Nov. 17.

Santa’s coming to town

Christmas Love, an mow for cbs and the Global Television Network about a love rekindled between a new divorcee and an old beau, will shoot outside Toronto Oct. 23 to Nov. 17.

Randy Travis stars as the love interest. Director is Judd Taylor, producer is Michael Jaffe, executive producers are Marilyn Stonehouse and Jaffe, production designer is Susan Longmire, Claire Walker is casting and Randi Richmond is production manager.

Boyz will be boyz

The Boys Next Door, a Hallmark Hall of Fame mow for cbs and the CTV Television Network, is in production in and around Toronto through Oct. 27, with John Erman directing/producing and Dick Walsh as executive producer.

The mow, based on the 1988 Broadway play by Tom Griffin about four retarded men and the social worker who takes care of them, was bought by Walsh from Warner Bros. after Norman Jewison decided to let it slide.

Walsh says the story is ‘a very funny and yet very serious look at mental retardation.’

Nathan Lane, Robert Sean Leonard, Michael Jeter and Courtney Vance star as the quartet, with Tony Goldwyn (son of Sam) playing the social worker. Production designer is Karen Bromley, dop is u.k.-based Frank Tidy and production manager is David Coatesworth. Post will happen back in Los Angeles.