– VOD hopefuls promise prod millions

Repatriation of $1 billion in home video rental revenues is front and center in the pitches pending for new video-on-demand services.

Five vod applicants, a mix of technologies and commitments to Canadian production funds among them, are queued to speak in Hull, Que., at a licensing hearing March 17. First-round interventions were filed Feb. 20.

WIC Western International Communications is in with two proposals, Electronic Digital Delivery, and another through Allarcom Pay Television. Both applications are committing 7.5% of gross revenues to Canadian production, rising to cap at 10% and 15% respectively if revenue projections are met. The edd service estimates contributing $121 million to Canadian production over seven years, a projection more than six times the amount of any of the other applicants.

Alliance Communications and Shaw Communications are partnered 50/50 on a French/English vod service, contributing 5% of gross revenues to Canadian programming over seven years to equal approximately $17.5 million.

Viewers Choice Pay-Per-View is committing 5% of gross to be paid to the Harold Greenberg Fund. Canal Indigo, a French-language vod pitch from Astral Communications, is committing 10% of gross revenues to the Greenberg Fund, to the tune of $1.2 million.

While Cancon levels vary, the vod turf-war will more likely be waged on distribution. wic is looking to employ ‘burst’ technology, which requires bits and pieces of the analog system. Alliance and Shaw are committing to invest millions in digital servers, which they would provide to the cable companies.

Expect the crtc to also delve into the navigational systems proposed, all of which promise to prominently display Canadian programming and make it easily accessible. The ratio of Canadian to foreign productions offered is 1:20 for all applicants, with the exception of Canal Indigo, which is proposing 1:12.

– MuchNelvanimation

a studio expansion is underway to handle the volume – more feature work and pumping 117 proprietary half-hours into its vaults – which Nelvana’s 1997 production plans entail.

The feature Pippi Longstocking is slated for fall delivery, and a second Babar feature is in production with a delivery target of 1998. On the series side, the Sweden/ Germany coproduction Pippi Longstocking will account for 26 new episodes, with 13 each on tap for Ned’s Newt (a new series based on an original concept by Andy Knight, intended as a Canada/Germany copro), Sam & Max, Franklin, Rupert, Little Bear, plus delivery of 26 from Donkey Kong Country, the Medialab, France, 3D copro.

Another cycle of the Terry Jones series Blazing Dragons is being financed, and a new book-based series, Dumb Bunnies, is being developed with Disney Channel and Scholastic.

– Coscient, Sony talk big

montreal-based Coscient Group has signed an agreement to provide large-format film consulting services to Sony Pictures Classics and Sony Corp.

Responsibility for the agreement has been handed to Andre Picard, Productions sda president and gm, a former vp and exec producer with Imax Corp. Picard has eight Imax credits including Fires of Kuwait and Asteroid Adventure, the first Imax HD Simulation Ride.

Mitchell Cannold, president of Sony Online Ventures, heads Sony’s large-format film business.

Coscient has other ties to Sony. Recent big-budget Allegro Films features Screamers and The Assignment, are distributed in the u.s. and internationally by Triumph Pictures, a division of Columbia Pictures.

– Everest, LIVE ink deal

greenlight Communications’ Toronto/Vancouver-based production/distribution arm Everest Entertainment has picked up exclusive theatrical distribution of LIVE Entertainment product in Canada effective through the year 2000.

live currently has seven films slated for release in 1997, including Sydney Lumet’s Critical Care, Hotel de Love, Boys Night Out and Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets.

– WFF expands board

montreal World Film Festival president Serge Losique has announced an expanded board of directors for the festival – many of whom are industry heavyweights – aimed at consolidating the event’s competitive position.

Losique says the board will review the festival and market’s overall objectives, increase industry participation, and improve the wff’s role in the marketing of theatrical movies.

Confirmed board members include Robert Lantos, Andre Bureau, Rock Demers, Ronald Weinberg, Andre Link, John Bailey, Claude Fournier, Armand Lafond, Leonard Schein, Louise Baillargeon and Stephen Greenberg.

– Cartoon Nets NFB fare

turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network is launching a weekly primetime program, O Canada, showcasing the National Film Board’s library of animated shorts.

The cable service has licensed over 50 nfb productions spanning five decades, from Norman McLaren’s classic Neighbours through to 1996 releases such as John Weldon’s Scant Sanity and Munro Ferguson’s How Dinosaurs Learned To Fly.

Launching March 5, the 30-minute program will air in a Wednesday 9:30 p.m. slot with a Sunday night repeat. The Cartoon Network reaches nearly 40 million subscribers.

– Tribute to Gabrielle Roy

the first Quebec-Manitoba coproduction began shooting this month in Winnipeg. Montreal’s Les Productions de l’Impatiente joined forces with Winnipeg-based Bufffalo Gal Pictures to produce the feature-length film Gabrielle Roy, a documentary chronicling the life of the internationally celebrated Canadian author whose works include The Tin Flute.

Directed by Quebec’s Lea Pool, the $700,000 film will be shot simultaneously in French and English by dop Georges Dufaux. The Manitoba shoot will involve locations throughout Winnipeg and the southwestern regions. The film will air in 1998 on Bravo! and Tele-Quebec, then cky Winnipeg, cfcf, and TV5.

– Greenlight Black Harbour, redlight Rita

cbc has greenlit Black Harbour for a second season. The series is shot in Nova Scotia and produced by Barbara Samuels and Wayne Grigsby of Fogbound Films, in association with Halifax’s Topsail Entertainment and the cbc.

For fellow Acadian Rita MacNeil’s variety series Rita & Friends, it’s a wrap after three years and 45 shows.

– People

Coscient Astral Distribution has named three vps – Jean Bureau, Daniel Lyon and Andre Paquette – to head the merged company’s expanded domestic and international operations.

Bureau, a former vp with Behaviour Entertainment and Astral Distribution, has been named vp international responsible for foreign sales of Coscient Group subsidiaries, the packaging of Quebec productions and the acquisition of export rights to other Canadian programs.

Lyon, a vp with Astral Distribution, and Paquette, exec vp Allegro Films Distribution, are both named vp distribution and marketing, and will be based in Toronto and Montreal respectively.

– At the nanba, Rogert G. Ottenhoff, executive vp and coo of pbs, has been named nanba vp.

– Former cbc communications chief Tom Curzon has been named director of communications at Baton Broadcasting.

– Benedict O’Halloran, formerly vp and secretary of Salter Street Films has left the prodco to pursue new business opportunities.

– Connie Moffitt has been named director of the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, being held May 26-29 and June 2-5.

– The Toronto branch of actra has elected Ferne Downey president. Downey replaces outgoing president Sandi Ross.

– Vancouver producer Raymond Massey (Whale Music, Impolite) has joined Mort Ransen’s Saltspring Island-based Ranfilm Productions.

– WIFT-T honorees

denise Donlon, Patricia Rozema, Sonja Smits, Pamela Wallin and Barbara Willis Sweete will be honored at Women in Film and Television – Toronto’s 10th annual Outstanding Achievement Awards gala on April 30.

– exMCA

following the global-branding name change lead of its u.s. parent, Willowdale, Ont.-hqed MCA Canada is now Universal Studios Canada. All company divisions in Canada previously mca-branded also switched to the Universal id this month.