Chew on this for a minute. Sugith Varughese – actor, writer, director and recent Gemini nominee for On My Mind – will direct his first feature this year, a romantic comedy based on his own script and set to be produced by Toronto’s The Film Works. Perfect Arrangement, the story of an illegal immigrant who falls in love with a rock ‘n’ roll backup singer, is set primarily in Toronto and features unique local backdrops like Little India.

But Perfect Arrangement will most likely be shot in New Brunswick. Varughese says he looked into shooting in Saskatchewan, but ‘they’ve got so much stuff going on there right now.’ What’s wrong with this picture?

‘New Brunswick was very aggressive and they offered incentives that just weren’t available here. They don’t even have a problem with us bringing in keys as long as we mentor someone there,’ says Varughese. ‘It doesn’t seem like Ontario is interested in indigenous production anymore, and other provinces are really interested.’

Talk about raising points for debate.

In any case, Varughese – who’s acted in e.n.g., F/X: The Series and Psi Factor in addition to writing Best of Both Worlds for cbc and some episodic stuff – says Perfect Arrangement has been on his hard drive since 1991 when he was at the Canadian Film Centre. There are a couple of as-yet-unidentified non-Canadian ‘names’ attached along with actor Saeed Jaffrey.

‘Telefilm was trying to insist on a full cast of Canadians,’ says Varughese, ‘but as a first-time director I didn’t want to have to try and get a performance out of someone who hadn’t carried a movie before.’

The film is budgeted at $2.1 million and Norstar is the Canadian distributor. Production is expected to get underway this summer.

-Beyond duct tape

My Father’s War is a departure for writer/performer/producer and sci-fi funny guy Rick Green. Green, writer and costar of The New Red Green Show (a multiple Gemini nominee this year) and veteran of The Frantics and the cult hit Prisoners of Gravity, is turning his hand to a Remembrance Day special which he hopes may eventually evolve into a series.

‘It’s a look at all the men who fought and killed in the Second World War, saw friends being killed, and then came back to become accountants and teachers and such. It’s about what these men carry around with them every day.’

Green says the idea came to him in his twenties during a dinner table discussion about capital punishment: ‘My father, a quiet insurance broker, said `Well, I’ve killed three people that I know of,’ and there was a stunned silence.’

Green, who will write, produce and host My Father’s War, says his pitch inspired others to tell him their stories about fathers and uncles and neighbors, so he knows the topic will touch a nerve. David Ostriker will be partnering with Green and the project’s being shopped right now.

There’s another doc-type project in Green’s future – a two- or three-part series about the similarities between the artistic and scientific communities. ‘Artists and scientists generally view each other with suspicion,’ says Green, as one who studied and taught science but entertains people for a living, ‘but really they’re both looking for truth with a capital t.’

And there’s more good news for Red Green fans. It’s looking like there’ll be a seventh season, and Steve Smith is developing a show to skewer women’s stuff the way Red Green parodies plaid and tools.

-Playing with PolyGram

At a seminar in Toronto entitled ‘Working With Hollywood: New Challenges/New Opportunities for Canadians’ (a function from The Canadian Institute), pencils began furiously scribbling when PolyGram Filmed Entertainment’s Judy Holm said her company is collecting proposals for Canadian features under $5 million.

Holm, who is director of theatrical marketing, spoke about PolyGram’s commitment to offshore local-language production, but advised that proposals have to be deemed by PolyGram as capable of capturing international interest. While she also alluded to the possibility that PolyGram could have development and production funds designated for Canada, contingent on what the feds decide, no hints were dropped about how many zeros might be in that figure.

Holm, who has over 10 years’ experience in the Canadian biz including stints at Norstar and cfp, coproduced Michael McNamara’s first feature, The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati.

At the same seminar, Lenora Hume, current vp of international production for Walt Disney tv animation and Nelvana veteran, spoke about the possibility of Disney producing a ‘Canadian cultural script.’

‘It’s just a matter of finding the right script,’ Hume told the audience.

How’s this? The Little Mermaid revives northern cod stocks with help from Whitecoat, a singing seal pup with a heart of gold.

-A bigger, better plan B

March 3 was to be the day, but James Buffin – aspiring filmmaker and grip about town – is putting his half-hour one-off on hold in hopes of expanding it into a 13-episode series.

Buffin had commitments from tvontario and cbc’s Reflections to air The Stone Skipper, the half-hour story of a 10-year-old boy who finds out the truth about his older brother’s Christmas Eve suicide. Forty-five thousand dollars of the project’s $75,000 paper budget had been taken care of via donations and deferrals, and Buffin had put together cast and crew. An extra $12,000 was raised through an early February fundraiser in Toronto. But getting accepted into the Canadian Film Centre’s tv drama program has inspired Buffin to think bigger.

‘My goal is to finish the program with a proposal in hand,’ he says, adding that he intends to develop and write outlines for the full series during the four-week program, which begins, ironically, on March 3. He expects that each of the 13 episodes would be budgeted in the range of $300,000 to $450,000.

-The merry month ofFebruary

Production for u.s. nets and cable is all over Toronto this month. Power Pictures has three cable features underway and one more – The Deep End – skedded to shoot in May. Melanie Darrow and Talk Show have just begun principal photography, with Sweetwater Redemption to start shortly.

Temple Street, the offspring of Showtime production entity Dufferin Gate, begins photography on the cable feature In His Father’s Shoes this month. Vic Sarin will be directing a script from Gary Gelt, and the cast includes Lou Gossett Jr.

-Less of The King

My imagination got away from me in the last column when it came to Carnelian Films’ adaptation of Matt Cohen’s novel Last Seen. Carnelian’s Elke Town assures me that the Elvis impersonators are definitely not that prominent in the story. Good to know for those of us with sequin allergies.