It’s been a year since we first met the producers of Stand-Up Guys at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival.

The producers, a writing/producing team of Michael Cameron and Kirk Johnson (Steel City Productions), had an idea and a working script telling the story of five comics who bungle a bank heist.

Today, after 12 months of knocking on doors and refining the script, the duo has received development funding from Citytv, attached five high-profile Canadian comics, cut a broadcast pay licence with TMN-The Movie Network, and attracted funding from a private investor. They remain seeking almost half of their $25,000 development budget.

In their spare time, Steel City has produced two short films this year: Sour Cream (Cameron, writer/director; Harold Bachmann, dop) and Base Notes (Suzanne de Jonge, writer/director; George Hosek, dop).

‘Sleep is no longer an option,’ says Johnson, looking at the next few weeks. After leveraging relationships developed at the Banff Television Festival in June and many cold calls, the team has lined up meetings with Fox Searchlight, Miramax and Artisan Entertainment to pitch u.s. coproduction/distribution for Stand Up Guys at tiff.

In order to make the package attractive south of the border, Steel City is working with Kim Everest at Powerhouse Casting to prepare the short list of u.s.-profile Cancon stars who will fit the four-week shooting schedule and $1.8-million budget. The duo is still on the lookout for a Canadian exec producer.

News came last week that Open Mike host Mike Bullard is confirmed for a small cameo role (contingent on availability). Also, Johnson was accepted into the National Screen Institute pre-festival Pitching Workshop and Cameron has penned another screenplay, a sci-fi action feature titled Dark Dawn. According to Cameron, ‘It’s Aliens without the bugs.’

Playback will monitor Steel City’s meetings with potential partners and distributors over the course of tiff. Look for an update in the third of Playback’s three special daily newspapers which will hit the street Sept. 11, 15 and 18.