Chalk Shadow, a new project currently making the distrib-shopping rounds at tiff, is ‘in good shape,’ according to its producer Sean Ryerson.

Clark Johnson (Homicide: Life on the Street, The Planet of Junior Brown) is the writer and will direct the low-budget feature (under $5 million). Actors Ned Beatty and Richard Belzer (Homicide) are committed to the film, which will probably shoot in Canada, with second unit in New York, come February series hiatus time.

Chalk, a ‘very dark comedy,’ is premised on the unexpected turn of events which ensue when a scumbag art gallery owner kidnaps a starving artist he discovers in the Village. The mercenary m.o. is to force the artist to paint and reap the rewards, however, the first fatal flaw in this plan is that as an addict, the artist is more interested in drugs, the acquisition and recreational use thereof, than art. The gallery owner eventually lands in jail, for all the wrong reasons.

Ryerson is producer of the fictional media mogul battle saga Weapons of Mass Distraction – starring Gabriel Byrne, Ann Kingsley, Paul Mazursky and Kathy Baker – a (as-things-transpired) curiously timed hbo movie directed by Steve Surjik and shot by Alar Kivilo, which scored four Emmy nominations.

*Morris’ Dr. Death and King Boots

Acclaimed American documentary director Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven, A Brief History of Time) has a couple of non-fiction projects he’s trying to secure funding and distribution for while in Toronto with his latest offering, Fast Cheap & Out of Control.

Morris is currently posting the non-fiction feature Dr. Death about an electric chair repairman and death machine designer. The $2-million picture was shot with funding from Channel 4 in the u.k. and is based on a true story. Before leaving for Toronto, Morris was trying to negotiate a u.s. distribution deal and says resolving distribution and financing for Dr. Death was a top priority. He is still looking for a worldwide distributor.

Also on the slate for Morris is the upcoming Warner Bros. feature The Trial of King Boots. Morris is looking to go into production in the near future on his script that tells the true story of a dog in Detroit, Michigan that was put on trial for murder.

As with most of his pictures, Morris found the story in newspaper clippings. ‘It is an extraordinary story, I’ve never come across anything like it,’ says Morris. ‘The dog was accused of killing his owner’s mother by dog bite. Multiple bites and slashes caused by the attack of a canine was the cause of death, according to the coroner’s report.’

Morris calls King Boots’ trial a great miscarriage of justice. Perhaps Morris will be able to do for the dog what he did for Randall Dale Adams, subject of The Thin Blue Line. The 1988 documentary is credited with overturning Adams’ conviction for the murder of a Dallas police officer.

*Skogland’s Last Lovers

Canadian auteur filmmaker Kari Skogland, whose thriller Men With Guns is in this year’s Perspective Canada lineup, is in development on the feature Last Lovers. Hoping to begin production in November, Skogland is looking for development money and financing for the Just Betzer-produced project about a man in Paris dealing with Roman Catholicism, madness and love.

*Burns shops Banff

Another Perspective Canada director with something in the works is Calgary’s Gary Burns (Kitchen Party). Banff (working title) is about an agoraphobic man who goes to the mountains to deal with his condition and hires a student to be his companion.

Burns, who’s hoping to shoot the picture next summer out of Calgary on a budget of around $2 million, is seeking development and financial backing.