When first-time feature writer/ director John Doyle of St. John’s, Nfld.-based Film East Inc. was able to take a few moments away from helming his comedic feature Extraordinary Visitor to answer some questions about the production, he did so while scouting out a location among a batch of microwave towers, talking on a cell phone.

‘We’re trying to figure out how to shoot this without killing anybody,’ says Doyle, who began principal photography on Nov. 16, with a projected wrap date of Jan. 13 following a Christmas break.

With a budget of $1.9 million, Extraordinary Visitor is among the upcoming wave of films that deals with issues surrounding the end of the millennium (see Don McKellar’s Rhombus-produced Last Night).

‘It takes place in late 1999 on the eve of the millennium and the Blessed Virgin appears to the Pope and tells him that God has decided to destroy humanity,’ explains Doyle, a well-known writer who has directed a couple of television dramas (Bourgeois Legacy, Season on the Water) and is the host of his own signature show on CBC Radio, The Doyle Bulletin.

‘But she being the mother of mercy has interceded and has decided to send Saint John the Baptist to earth to look for a sign of hope,’ continues Doyle. ‘Of course he comes to St. John’s because it’s a land of simple fisher folk.’

When John the Baptist, played by Raoul Bhaneja, arrives in Newfoundland, he encounters a married couple played by codco alumnae Andy Jones and co-codco alum and This Hour Has 22 Minutes creator and star, Mary Walsh.

‘Yes, it’s a comedy,’ confirms Doyle, who wrote Extraordinary Visitor with Walsh and Jones in mind.

Produced by fellow Film East principals Jennice Ripley and Paul Pope (Dooley Gardens, Secret Nation, Welcome to Canada), Telefilm Canada kicked in some development money as well as a good chunk of the budget. Additional financing was provided by a cbc presale deal, some provincial money that came about before the existence of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation and a distribution deal with Toronto’s Cinema Esperanca.

Toronto’s Brian Hebb is lensing the 35mm shoot, which is using a primarily Newfoundland crew, including art director Pam Hall, who helped in the creation of an elaborate papal study set.

Doyle says the film will post at the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Co-op where they recently upgraded to two Avid Film Composer suites. No editor has been named.

Extraordinary Visitor is poised to hit theaters nationwide in May 1998.

*Furey-optioned script on busy Imagex slate

Still on the Rock, newly appointed head of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation Leo Furey will have a script he optioned called The Divine Ryans by Wayne Johnston begin production in Newfoundland in late February with Chris Zimmer’s Nova Scotia-based prodco Imagex and an as-yet-unnamed European coproducer.

Described by Zimmer as a story about ‘politics, sex and hockey, but not necessarily in that order,’ and with an estimated budget in the $3-million to $4-million range, full casting, directing and distribution details on The Divine Ryans are expected before Christmas.

In other Imagex news, a u.s. distribution deal with Live Entertainment has been inked for The Real Howard Spitz (formerly Writer’s Block) following a strong screening at mifed in Milan. Zimmer also reports sales on the film starring Kelsey Grammer to most of the major European territories, with seven deals done.

‘Hopefully by afm we’ll have it all pretty well wrapped up,’ says Zimmer, who is looking at a North American spring release for the film, with Malofilm distributing in Canada.

Meanwhile, the John Hurt/ Jason Priestley vehicle Love and Death on Long Island has a North American theatrical release Feb. 27, 1998, with Alliance Releasing handling Canada and cfp the u.s. The film has a British release on Feb. 17.

Look for an Imagex coproduction with Toronto’s Julia Sereny and Sienna Films of Nova Scotia scriptwriter Tricia Fish’s New Waterford Girls, skedded to go to camera in Cape Breton in early summer ’98.

Imagex is currently developing an animated feature titled The Last Dwarf with Brown Bag Films of Dublin, Ireland. Bruce Robb is penning the script, which Zimmer says is at least six or eight months away from production. Halifax’s Adner Animation, which did the Imagex Politoon series earlier this year and some of the credit animation on The Real Howard Spitz, will probably share the drawing duties with Brown Bag on The Last Dwarf.

On the tv side, posting is underway on a one-hour Vision/BBC Scotland documentary Flight, which deals with Scottish immigration. Directed by Scotland-based Emma Davies and shot in Cape Breton and Ontario on 16mm film by John Walker, Flight is a $400,000 production with a spring delivery date.

*Comeau shoots Mercy

Steven J.P. Comeau, self-proclaimed ‘El Presidente’ of Halifax multimedia and post music and effects shop Collideascope, is part of the hip young crowd that stands to inherit the reins of the Nova Scotia film and tv scene. Triad Films’ Peter D’Entremont produced and was a copro partner.

With contemporaries like Scott Simpson (Terminal Lunch) and Torrential Pictures’ Mike Clattenburg and Jonathan Torrens, Comeau is the post effects supervisor on Salter Street’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and handles all the music and effects for cbc’s Street Cents. In between all the service work with Collideascope, Comeau has somehow found the time to do a project of his own and has just wrapped shooting his first short film Mercy.

With a healthy $20,000 budget and funding from the National Film Board and the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, Mercy is a black-and-white stylized horror with a sparse 20 lines of dialogue. ‘It’s kind of like Jacob’s Ladder, as the main character descends into madness and can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy,’ says Comeau, who composed and produced all the music for the film before he started shooting in October.

Written, directed and produced by Comeau, the half-hour movie stars Halifax actors Josh MacDonald and Anita Mendotti and was lensed by Dave Albiston, winner of the best cinematography award at this year’s Atlantic Film Festival for Terminal Lunch.

While continuing to helm Collideascope and working on a 3D animation curriculum training cd-rom for the New Brunswick government with business partner Michael Andreas Kettner, Comeau is talking about expanding the company and opening an office in New Brunswick.

While in Toronto getting a transfer of Mercy done at PFA Medallion, Comeau suggested the possibility of teaming his pic with two other short films by young Nova Scotia directors to create a feature-length release.

*AFF attendance up 11%

After much number-crunching and a well-deserved trip to the Caribbean, Atlantic Film Festival director Gordon Whittaker is reporting an 11% overall increase in attendance at this year’s 17th annual aff.

The Industry Series seminars reported an impressive attendance increase of 28% over ’96, and the festival was able to attract 17 new sponsors this year, resulting in a 36% increase in sponsorship revenue.

The strong program drew more people to the box office, with sales from tickets and passes up 14% over last year.

Screen Scene, the children’s film and tv program, reported a 33% decline in attendance that Screen Scene coordinator Joanna Hilchie says was due in part to ‘amalgamation of Halifax region schools, which made it increasingly difficult to reach teachers. But those who attended were very pleased with the program,’ she adds.