‘so I left a note on his car saying I had to talk to him.’

That fine line between producer and stalker is becoming all the more blurry it seems, but the tactic worked for Big Star Motion Pictures’ producer Frank Deluca. The object of his interest was Nick Mancuso (Suspicious Agenda, Young Ivanhoe). Deluca and director Giacomo Moncada, both of whom met the actor through a workshop, wanted to attach him to their action/adventure script Death By Dawn. Mancuso promised an hour, and six hours later they had him on board.

Big Star is probably best known for bringing the smiling, blue-smocked greeters into your home, and international award-winning commercial campaigns for the likes of Wal-Mart and Ital Pasta are bankrolling the company’s development slate.

Death By Dawn, based on a true story, tells the tale of two small-town hoods who roll an Italian social club, unknowingly taking the mob for a sizable sum. Mancuso will play the lead hit man and the shoot is scheduled for September in Toronto and Niagara Falls.

The company – comprised of Deluca, Moncada and Domenic Troiano – raised the $300,000 independently, not willing to tie themselves up in the traditional Canadian funding process. Sonny Grosso and Larry Jacobson helped the team develop the project.

Deluca and Moncada are not exactly new to the whole realm. Two years ago they pitched a $1.1 million per hour drama series to USA Network. It didn’t pan out, but the series, says Deluca, was much like Profiler, now featured on nbc. William Morris repped them in l.a. for the project on the strength of the duo’s 1992 short Going For Broke.

Wanting to make sure they have lots of irons in the fire, the company’s development slate also includes a 15-minute children’s series called Danny the Dumptruck featuring radio-controlled models. For consideration after Death by Dawn, Big Star has optioned two books: The Rape and Revenge of Linda Martin, a true story from 1940s small-town u.s.a. by Dr. Paul Albert; and The Evening Bird, the true story of Canadian artist Svevz Caetani by Heidi Thompson. The Evening Bird, which tells an epic tale about transplanted Italian royalty, is particularly ripe for a Canada/Italy coproduction.

Meanwhile, the team is trying to find the time between commercial shoots and development to pick up their hardware. They’re in Texas this month to collect their fourth Gold Award from the Houston Worldfest for a spot for Ital Pasta.

-Going Dutch

There’s been much buzz about the Dutch of late – how they’re eager to coproduce and have cash to spend – and now that assertion is getting some weight behind it.

Keith Ross Leckie of Toronto’s Tapestry Films is on a three-week junket to Indonesia researching for The Way of a Boy, a $5 million feature to be coproduced with a Dutch partner next year. The film, based on Canadian Ernest Hillen’s memoir, tells the story of a family held prisoner in two Indonesia-based Japanese internment camps during the early 1940s.

Producer Mary Young Leckie calls the project ‘a nice property for a coproduction’ as the story has both Dutch and Canadian ties. Leckie expects that the director will be Dutch, and Willeke van Ammelrooy from Antonia’s Line has expressed interest in the lead.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Tapestry will be shooting an mow called Children Of My Heart this fall and The Blue Castle, a feature, will shoot this summer in Muskoka.

Based on a Lucy Maud Montgomery property, The Blue Castle is a script from Janet Maclean about a 29-year-old spinster with six months to live. Eleanor Lindo is directing and coproducing. Distribution negotiations are ongoing.

Children Of My Heart, an mow in the $3 million range, is still looking for a home. The original work from Gabrielle Roy was set in Manitoba, and Leckie says both Manitoba and Saskatchewan are still possibilities. Keith Ross Leckie will direct, and there’s currently no broadcaster attached.

Tapestry has recently hired Jana Cervinka as the company’s head of development, and Cervinka is the one to call with proposals.

By the way, why is it that residents of Holland are associated with splitting the bill?

-Toronto is cool, and dry

At press time, Canadian casting was still underway for A Cool, Dry Place, a feature from executive producer David Coatsworth for 20th Century Fox. Set to go in June, the picture will be directed by John N. Smith (The Boys of St. Vincent, Dangerous Minds) and stars Vince Vaughan from the u.s. indie hit Swingers. Gail Mutrux and Katie Jacobs are producing what Coatsworth describes as ‘a Kramer vs. Kramer for the ’90s.’ Montreal dop Jean Lepine (Pret a Porter, The Player) is also on board.

The shoot will happen primarily in Toronto with some second unit from the American Midwest. Coatsworth says they’re still scouting for a small-town location somewhere in southern Ontario.

-More Yanks

If negotiations fall into place, John Landis will be directing a new Blues Brothers movie here this summer. Blues Brothers 2000, for Universal Pictures, would run from late May to early September. Leslie Belzberg and Grace Gilroy are pegged as the producers.

-Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?

Perhaps he will be the heart and soul of the much-anticipated yet often-scoffed-at Canadian star system, or maybe he’ll follow the money to l.a., but it cannot be said that David Cubitt isn’t getting any work. He’s even getting thanked in Shift.

The man himself is currently in Halifax playing a child molester for the Salter Street miniseries Major Crime, a project which features some unique casting in the form of Megan Follows, Mary Walsh and Michael Moriarty. While shooting Atlantis’ Traders, he also managed the baddie role in Swann and guest spots on The X-Files and The Outer Limits.

The latest from the grapevine is that he’ll be balancing the new season of Traders – set to rev up in June – with a role in a series produced for cbs. If that’s the case, he’ll be one fatigued heartthrob.