*Astral seeks full control of RPC

The board of directors of Reseaux Premier Choix is recommending to its shareholders the sale of all outstanding shares to Astral Communications, which currently holds 60% of the publicly traded French-language specialty and pay-tv broadcasting company.

A special meeting of rpc shareholders has been called for Dec. 9 to consider the recommendation. If approved, rpc becomes a wholly owned Astral subsidiary.

In other developments, rpc recently filed an application with the crtc seeking authorization to sell commercial airtime on Canal d, an entertainment and documentary channel introduced on basic in 1995. The application is in the deficiencies stage.

rpc is reporting year-end revenues of $52 million, against $50.5 million for the previous year. Net earnings are $7.6 million, up 19% over last year. rpc operates Canal Famille, Canal D and Super Ecran, the pay-tv movie channel.

*Gotham/Ark dry up

With ex-pat Canadian and Ottawa native Joel Roodman returning to Miramax and partner Patrick McDarrah ‘off doing his own thing,’ it appears that New York-based Gotham Entertainment and its much-heralded $10-million Ark Pictures fund are no more.

The fund was earmarked for independent features and was responsible for Philip and Belinda Haas’ latest film, The Blood Oranges, which played at the Toronto International Film Festival and is now being sold by Trimark.

Roodman is back at Miramax as vp sales and marketing for the international division.

This leaves Pitch directors Spencer Rice and Kenny Hotz out in the cold as their sales agent deal with Roodman and Gotham is no longer in effect.

Video Services Corporation’s John Gross has stepped in as a domestic distributor and is opening Pitch at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema on Dec. 10, with plans ‘to work it across the country theatrically and then to the movie network,’ says Gross, who is also working on a u.s. cable deal for Pitch.

Gross says Roodman was a key man in the Pitch deal so vsc was free to step in for domestic and u.s. rights, adding, ‘We are going to hand off the international rights to Jane Balfour Films in London.’

*Kilmury takes CableACE

Mother Trucker/Diana Kilmury: Teamster picked up the best international dramatic special or series/movie or miniseries prize at the CableACE Awards in the International and Craft categories.

Executive produced by Laszlo Barna, Christine Shipton and Anne Wheeler, the tv movie about Diana Kilmury’s fight for democracy in the Teamsters union was directed by Sturla Gunnarsson (Final Offer, Gerrie and Louise) and is an Alliance Communications presentation produced by Barna-Alper/Anne Wheeler Inc. in association with the cbc.

Alliance’s The Hunchback also received a CableACE Award for makeup. Hunchback star Mandy Patinkin is up for best actor in the next round of CableACE Awards, to take place in l.a. on Nov. 14 and 15.

*FFP selects three

The Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project has selected three projects for the ffp’s first development phase.

The three selections are Flora & Fauna, a story about friendship between a homeless girl and a career woman from writer/director Lori Spring and producer Tina Goldlist; She Can’t Sleep from writer/director Helen Lee and producer Jennifer Kawaja about a Korean-Canadian woman’s crisis of her own making while caught between borders and relationships; and Clutch, a dramatic tale about love, murder and aromatherapy from writer/ director Chris Grismer and producers Allison Lewis and Chan Park.

In other cfc news, director Colleen Murphy was awarded three prizes at the 46th Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg for her ffp effort Shoemaker. The film took the audience prize, the Ecumenic Jury main prize and was recommended to be released theatrically in Germany by the Jury of Cinema Owners.

*Arthur, Wimzie go Latin

Cinar Films has announced educational broadcaster Ingles Individual Network has acquired tv rights to Arthur and Wimzie’s House for the purpose of teaching English to Mexican children.

Arthur, a coventure with wgbh Boston, went to air Oct. 22. Wimzie debuts in January. Both programs will be broadcast in English on MVS Multivision’s pay-tv network, which includes the newly created iin English channel.

MVS, Latin America’s leading cable and satellite broadcaster, will also transmit Spanish, Portuguese and English versions of both children’s shows via zaz, its family cable network, delivered to cable and satellite subscribers across the continent.

*APFTQ seeks certification

The apftq, representing Quebec-based film, tv and commercial producers, has applied for certification status to Commission de reconnaissance des associations d’artistes et des associations de producteurs, the Quebec government tribunal charged with administering the legal conditions of artists, performers and professional associations in the cultural industries sector.

The request by the apftq for recognition could meet with resistance from guild and professional associations which are sure to make the point the producers’ application is the first from an employers’ group.

Interested parties who want to appear at an as-yet-unscheduled commission hearing have until Nov. 14 to file a written request.

*Lions Gate public

Lions Gate Entertainment’s reverse takeover of tse-listed shell company Beringer Gold Corp. has been pushed to Nov. 12 from the end of October.

Vancouver-based Lions Gate, which is run by Frank Giustra and now owns North Shore Studios, cfp and Mandalay Television, is selling a $60-million private placement prior to the rto. Documentation and meetings required before going public account for the delay.

In the offering, 14.8 million shares are being sold at $4.05. Shares come with a one-third common share purchase warrant. Proceeds of the offering will go toward the production of feature-length films.

The unnamed ‘major’ Hollywood studio through which Lions Gate has secured an output deal has extended its deadline for completing the agreement to Dec. 31.

*Alliance/Kinowelt sign

Alliance Communications confirms mifed reports that Alliance Pictures International has inked a four-year, 10-picture output deal with Munich-based distributor Kinowelt. Although Alliance won’t confirm financials, the budget for some of the films is reportedly pushing us$30 million.

*Prepping on Grey Owl

International and local casting has started on Grey Owl, a $30-million feature from director/producer Richard Attenborough and producer Jake Eberts slated to shoot in the Montreal region next spring and summer.

Reports out of the u.s. have Pierce Brosnan, star of Tomorrow Never Dies, the 18th James Bond film, in the role of the pioneering 1930s woodsman and environmentalist. Attenborough and Eberts last teamed up on the movie Gandhi, while Eberts’ London-based operation, Allied Filmmakers, shot the $14-million Richard Friedenberg feature film The Education of Little Tree on location in Quebec last fall.

International sales rights to Grey Owl have been sold to New York-based Largo Entertainment and ceo Barr Potter.

Casting in Montreal is being handled by Elite Productions.

*Etc.

* YTV has been shortlisted for the 1997 International Council/UNICEF Award for outstanding participation in the 1996 International Children’s Day of Broadcasting. The winner will be announced at the International Emmy Awards gala on Nov. 24 in New York.

* Nova Scotia’s Thom Fitzgerald captured the Viacom Canada Best Canadian Film Award at Cinefest 97 in Sudbury, Ont. for The Hanging Garden.

* Rhonda Silverstone is the acting commissioner of the Toronto Film Commission. David Plant left the position Oct. 20.

* At Atlantis Broadcasting, Lisa Lyons has been promoted to vp, distribution and affiliate relations.

* Baton Broadcasting has named Michael Elgie vp and gm, atv/asn.

* ONtv news anchors Jennifer Mossop and Donna Skelly will be changing anchor/producer responsibilities, with Mossop anchoring and producing The Evening News at 6 p.m. and Skelly anchoring and producing The Final Edition at 11 p.m.

* The North American National Broadcasters Association has named Arthur Kane, executive director of the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, as the winner of its inaugural International Achievement Award.