Montreal: Cinar Films, pbs affiliate wqed in Pittsburgh and Japanese public broadcaster nhk have begun filming on Rinko: The Best Bad Thing, a made-for-tv movie based a book by Japanese-American author Yoshiko Uchida.

Directed by Toronto-based Peter Rowe and set in northern California, Rinko tells the story of a young Japanese-American schoolgirl who comes to terms with her dual cultural heritage. Rinko gets the not-so-great news that her mom wants her to spend a month on the farm helping old Aunt Hata.

Although her friends say aunty is kind of crazy, Rinko learns a valuable lesson about appearances, and in the process rediscovers her roots and the beauty of her culture, says Irene Litinsky, Cinar’s new executive in charge of production and Rinko’s coproducer along with Patricia Lavoie.

Twelve-year-old Lana McKessack plays Rinko, with George Takei, Mr. Sulu of Star Trek fame, cast as an illegal immigrant who lives in a barn and builds beautiful kites. Japanese actress Kirin Kiki is Aunt Hata and Canadian actor Robert Ito (The X-Files) plays Rinko’s dad.

Rowe’s credits include The Edison Twins, The Campbells and The Adventures of the Black Stallion. Zoe Sakallaropoulo is the art director and Alain Dostie is the shoot’s dop.

The four-week shoot began July 29 and wraps Aug. 23.

In her new post, Litinsky will oversee all of Cinar’s growing live-action slate, which this year includes 17 half-hours of Lassie, 13 one-hours of Emily, and 13 half-hours of Space Cases.

Teleroman a la Telemetropole

‘We’ve never had as big a year in dramatic production at Tele-Metropole,’ says Jocelyn Deschenes, the broadcaster’s director of drama programs and acquisitions.

The TVA Network will broadcast four and a half hours a week of original, locally produced Canadian drama and sitcoms this season, says Deschenes, as well as 23 new hours of film-originated, indie-produced series including Sovimage’s Lobby and the Modus TV/Neofilms series Ces Enfants d’ailleurs.

New teleroman action for the fall season includes Bungalow Blues, a half-hour sitcom scripted by Christian Fournier, writer of Triplex and the long-running tva hit Chop Suey.

This story sets boomers and their offspring on a collision course when a suburban family decides to return to the city. The parents are counting on the move to get the 20-something kids out of the house and into their own apartment.

Instead, says Deschenes, ‘les jeunes, their girlfriends and boyfriends remain, creating an incredible promiscuity.’

Raymond Bouchard and Francine Ruel are the beleaguered boomers and Eric Brisebois (Le Sorcier) and Sandra Dumaresq play the kids.

Also on tva’s ’96/97 teleroman menu are the third season of Lise Payette’s Les Machos, 26 one-hours produced by Productions Point de Mire; the fourth season of writer Guy Fournier’s Ent’ Cadieux, a one-hour series produced in-house; the second season of Soif de Vivre, 13 half-hours of Gen-x social commentary in teleroman form produced by Productions jbm, a coventure between producers Jean-Pierre Morin and Jacquelin Bouchard; and Le Retour, a new one-hour teleroman starring Angele Coutu (Jamais deux sans toi).

JPL Productions, a Tele-Metropole affiliate, and screenwriters Louise Pelletier and Suzanne Aubry are preparing a new teleroman to be shot this coming winter.

Deschenes says if in-house producer jpl has become more active in drama – pulling in about 7% or 8% of the Cable Production Fund’s French-track allocation – there’s certainly no thought of cutting back on indie-sourced production.

Quebec broadcasters simply can’t deprive themselves of the program development talent inherent in the indie sector, says Deschenes, adding:

‘There is still a huge interest in independent production, in drama and variety. It’s a question of logic. We’ve created an independent production industry in Quebec second to none, and we’ve benefited hugely since 1988 when Videotron purchased Tele-Metropole, because before that, there really wasn’t any independent production.’

Pram International’s slate

Les Productions Pram International is busy taping the seventh season of the elaborate, one-hour, ‘hidden camera’ comedy spoof Surprise sur prise.

Broadcast on Radio-Canada and hosted by the mischievous and brave Marcel Belliveau, two of the season’s seven episodes are 90-minute ‘top-secret’ specials, says Pram producer Isabelle Robert.

Pram is also producing Jeux d’Enfants, a new 26 half-hour primetime quiz show for Radio-Canada hosted by actor Martin Drainville (Louis 19, Scoop).

The concept teams a star with a member of the public in a word definition game, which features location outtakes and clues from preteen students.

Writer Jean-Pierre Plante is developing a new sitcom for Pram, Comedien d’occasion, a TVA Network project that mixes fictional elements and hidden-camera realism, says Robert.

Ten-year-old Pram is one of a very few Montreal production companies with a foreign office. In fact, it has two – Pram s.a.r.l. in Paris headed by Sylvie Cote, and a Cologne, Germany office headed by Marc Thibeault.

The Cologne office has signed a very lucrative contract with broadcaster rtl to produce 16 one-hour primetime episodes of season two of Surprise sur prise.

Rights to the program, in which stars and public figures are embarrassed, have been licensed to MTV Studios in Stockholm, with broadcasts in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Shostak/Rossner update

Preproduction is underway for a four-week fall shoot on Strip Search, a Shostak/Rossner Productions feature film presold to Alliance Releasing in Canada and Quadra Entertainment internationally.

The story is from Montreal screenwriter Tom Parkinson, with Rod Hewitt (Verne Miller) slated to direct.

Producer Danny Rossner says the $2.5 million film is a ‘character study and suspense’ set mainly at night in a strip bar.

Michael Pare (Thor), featured in Shimon Dotan’s Coyote Run, and Caroline Neron, a Quebec actress and model who appeared in Urgence, are the film’s leads.

The house’s maiden production was Sci-Fighters, shot last fall by director Peter Svatek and distributed in Canada by CFP Distribution.

Projects in development include Tarot, a drama anthology series with financing from Showtime; Ivan Espy Saves Christmas, a family holiday feature film; and Tin Man, a promising sci-fi and gumshoe feature story set in the 1940s, which Rossner says is slated for principal photography next spring.