A sweet summer day in Claremont, Ont. and the local kids are getting an eyeful, checking out the craft truck, scanning the crowd, trying to spot the stars. Around the front of the farmhouse, the crew is setting up a picket fence gag – all the pickets are supposed to fall off as Joe Flaherty’s character closes the gate.

Over on the grass, the owner of the house and his brother survey the scene with a little apprehension. One of them asks the other about Flaherty. He squints hard at the actor, trying to place him.

‘Oh yeah, he used to dress up in a cape and all that stuff on tv. Very, very good.’

Paragon’s HandMade Films feature The Wrong Guy, which just wrapped after a two-month shoot in and around Toronto, is a loose spoof of the The Fugitive. Nelson Hibbert, played by Dave Foley, is a pretty useless executive who’s on the lam. He happened upon the dead body of his boss after an ugly office dispute, and now he’s sure the police are chasing him. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for the sake of the laughs), he isn’t even a suspect. Turns out the real killer was videotaped in the act. But Hibbert doesn’t know that.

Foley cowrote the script with Jay Kogen (The Simpsons, The Single Guy) and costar David Higgins. Higgins plays Arlen, a lethargic yet crooked cop, and the starring cast is rounded out by Jennifer Tilly (Lynn, a naive narcoleptic) and Colm Feore (the real killer). Adding to the tv world theme of the picture is director David Steinberg. His latest gigs have included 18 episodes of Mad About You.

Line producer/coproducer Martin Walters says the tv crossover has been a boon to the picture. ‘It’s a well-written, funny, clearly commercial script, so the television element was probably beneficial in all sorts of intangible ways.’

The shoot, which began in May, has had it’s share of obstacles. With just a little over $1 million (about a tenth of the movie’s $11 million budget) production designer Gregory Kerr had to recreate a road trip across the u.s. with about 60 locations, ranging all the way from Cleveland, Ohio south to Laredo, Texas. Says Kerr: ‘Originally the journey was supposed to go from Seattle to Texas, but there was no way. We couldn’t even begin to do the Rockies here.’

The wet, cold spring and summer also gave the production more than its fair share of grief, and to top it off, Foley sprained his ankle falling into a dumpster. That resulted in a three-day shutdown.

But today, today’s a different story. The sun is shining and the crew has the next day off, so everybody’s happy. Executive producer Jon Slan is paying a visit, yukking it up with Foley and Steinberg.

‘Foley is fabulous!’ says Slan.

‘Oh, you just like the alliteration,’ says Foley. ‘Later you’ll be saying, `Foley is a Filipino!’ ‘

Slan has reason to be happy-go-lucky. The Wrong Guy is pretty much guaranteed to make money. ‘Commercially, this is going to do very well for us. It’s already a break-even before the theatrical release.’

HandMade Films, Paragon’s subsidiary/partner company, will distribute The Wrong Guy internationally, and Hollywood Pictures has the u.s. rights. In Canada, cfp will do the honors.

Slan admits Paragon has been looking into establishing a distribution arm, but it was too early to take on distribution of this picture. ‘We have been considering getting into distribution, but for this we had to have a Canadian distributor for the financing and we’re not really set up yet.’

Paragon has completion and delivery of five films slated for 1997, with The Wrong Guy being number one. The other four, which Slan says will total $20-$22 million, include The Assistant, a period piece written and to be directed by Dan Petrie, and Dinner at Fred’s, a comedy written and directed by Sean Thompson.

As for The Wrong Guy, which is expected to be completed in November, Slan is still up in the air on a firm release date. ‘Contractually, the release is supposed to be fall 1997. But I’ve talked to the executive and I think it may move up.’

Back on the grass, the owner of the house has assembled the whole family to see the movie magic, such as it is, and the two teenage daughters are looking pretty unimpressed. The mood elsewhere is pretty jovial though as I try to wrangle a ride back downtown. Slan says that’s his only problem with this location; it falls outside the criteria. ‘I like to shoot in Toronto, and I like to shoot close to my house,’ jokes Slan. ‘The next production manager won’t make the same mistake’