There may be a lot of snow-shoveling on the set of At The End of the Day: The Sue Rodriquez Story this month, as New Brunswick will be standing in for temperate Vancouver and Victoria.

A coproduction between Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions, l.a.-based ex-pat director Sheldon Larry’s Turn Me Loose Productions and Bob Miller’s Atlantic Media Works, the cbc mow is set to lens Nov. 24 in Fredericton with director Larry at the helm.

A three-and-a-half-year process that saw Larry and screenwriter/ novelist Linda Svendsen working closely with key figures in Rodriquez’s life including b.c. mp Svend Robinson, it was the attractive provincial money and tax incentives offered by Sam Grana and Film nb that were the final key elements in helping get the right-to-die advocate’s story to the small screen.

‘Making a Canadian movie is a difficult thing,’ says Larry, who is presently wrapping post on the Alliance mow Family of Cops iii. ‘Telefilm was involved along with various other agencies, but we needed provincial help, and New Brunswick is being extremely hospitable in their desire to develop an indigenous film industry. They’ve made it financially attractive. We didn’t even access the Copps fund [ctcpf], so we really needed to look around ambitiously and aggressively. Sam Grana really loved the project and is being extremely supportive and helpful, so that’s why we’re shooting in New Brunswick.’

Larry says while his work on the Family of Cops franchise has been delightful, this project is ‘a cry from the heart’ and ‘when attempting to do a movie like this, budgets are somewhat finite. We quite frankly don’t have enough money to make it, but there is passion and will and New Brunswick is offering us that.’

Barna-Alper’s head of drama David Weaver had the film (originally developed by Alliance, which will still distribute worldwide) budgeted at around $3 million a few months ago, but Miller pegs the final budget at closer to $2.7 million.

As to sales to other territories, Larry points out that the question of physician-assisted suicide is a major issue in the u.s., u.k. and Australia as well as countless other countries. ‘The issue is huge,’ says Larry, ‘and it’s an issue for everyone.’

Larry plans to bring some of his key crew from Family of Cops to New Brunswick for the shoot. There is no word yet on casting or who will play Robinson, but Larry says ‘the cream of the cream of the Canadian acting community are stepping forward and nobody is going to make a lot of money on this movie, actors will be working for scale. I get phone calls daily from people who play leads at Stratford or actors who have huge careers in the States.’

Larry also has two other Canadian features in development, Paper Tigers, a Gen-x comedy written by Michael Amo about three Canadians teaching English in Japan, and another comedy entitled Shiney’s Head, about a shrunken head that picks winners in the horse races. Actor Pete Postlethwaite has been approached for the shrunken-head project.

Miller is currently exec producing the $2.7 million budgeted Alliance/Atlantic Media Works Harlequin romance This Matter of Marriage, currently shooting in Fredericton in a converted warehouse using a 50% New Brunswick crew.

With director Brad Turner (Major Crime) at the helm and John Bari behind the camera, the first of Alliance’s new batch of romances stars Leslie Hope, Sherry Miller and Michael Nouri. Rumors of a cameo by former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna have proven unfounded. Miller says McKenna seriously considered the role as a real estate developer but declined.

The mow is scheduled to run on ctv in Canada and Showtime in the u.s on Valentine’s Day.

*Lara’s Light

Director/writer Marie Koehler and producer Joanna Hilchie were in the small Nova Scotia community of Waverly and Dartmouth in late October for a three-day shoot on their 10-minute drama Lara’s Light.

Koehler’s script tells the story of a seven-year-old girl named Lara who has been gifted with the ability to see auras around other people. Lara is played by Halifax native Genevieve Tessier who starred opposite Kelsey Grammer in the Imagex feature Writer’s Block last summer.

Described as ‘a magical tale that chronicles the girl’s attempt to fit in and learn when and when not to use her gifts,’ Lara’s Light is a short film about kids aimed at a kids’ audience.

As one of this year’s winners of a National Screen Institute Drama Prize, presented at the Local Heroes International Screen Festival in Edmonton, the film is being largely funded by the nsi prize money. Six Drama Prizes are awarded each year based on the quality of script and strength of the filmmaking team.

A final cut of Lara’s Light is expected to screen at the ’98 Local Heroes festival in March.

*Cripton looking to fund Eye of The Prophet

After receiving strong critical notice for his short film The Pallbearers, which was screened as part of the Atlantic Local Heroes section at this year’s Atlantic Film Festival, Moncton, n.b. native David Cripton is in development on the half-hour documentary Eye of the Prophet.

Produced by wife Nadia Jenessky, the doc will examine the life and work of Ukrainian artist Roman Romanyshn and his ‘Daliesque’ etchings in Kiev as the country continues to readjust following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Shot on Betacam, Cripton says Eye of the Prophet will juxtapose the creative process of the artist with the rebuilding of the Ukraine. ‘Though it’s not a new idea, I’m trying to equate a politically new nation with the artist’s blank page,’ says Cripton, a graduate of the Vancouver Film School.

With a projected budget of between $30,000 and $50,000, Cripton has been talking to Vision tv’s Atlantic representative Charles Doucet as the project needs a broadcaster and more financing.