In keeping with the coproduction spirit, Newfoundland producers Barbara Doran and Jennice Ripley have hooked up with Montreal producer Loren Richard of Cite-Amerique for Random Passage, marking the first coproduction between the two provinces.

The project, being produced with the cbc, is an eight-hour limited series now in its second draft, budgeted at $14 million and based on the book Random Passage and its sequel Waiting For Time by Newfoundland writer Bernice Morgan. The film will bring together the award-winning The Boys of St. Vincent team of writer Des Walsh and director John N. Smith.

Set in 1833, Random Passage is the story of Mary Bundle, who began her life in a workhouse in England and ended up in Newfoundland. Shooting will take place in England and Ireland as well as Newfoundland. Doran is hoping to start preproduction next September.

Doran and Ripley were in Edinburgh, Scotland this month for Sharing Stories, where they were searching for English and Irish talent and broadcasters.

After Edinburgh, the two, along with fellow Newfoundland producers Rosemary House and Sharon Smith, made their way to Ireland where they will represent the film community at a Newfoundland/Ireland trade mission.

Prior to her departure, Doran could be found in the editing suite at the National Film Board in Halifax, putting the finishing touches on The Perfect Hero, a $400,000 doc between her company, Morag Productions, and the nfb, which explores the world of romance fiction. The documentary will air Valentine’s Day on ctv. Kent Martin is nfb producer.

The film, which profiles those who read the sweet and steamy paperbacks and why, took Doran, who directed, and dop Kent Nasson on a Romantic Times Cruise in the Cayman Islands and to England, where they visited the home of Barbara Cartland, the 97-year-old author of 688 romance novels, an accomplishment which got her a spot in The Guinness Book of World Records.

*Misery Harbour sets up

A 1915 fish processing plant, a remote fishing village and a logging camp have been constructed in St. John’s, Nfld. for the province’s first international coproduction, Misery Harbour, which sailed into town earlier this month.

The $7.5-million venture – coproduced by Ken Pittman of Red Ochre Productions, St. John’s, Ulrik Bolt Jorgensen of Denmark’s Angel/Arena Film, Claes Goran Lillieborg of Sweden’s Triangle Art Film and Sigve Endresen of Norway’s Motlys – recently wrapped the Scandinavian portion of the shoot and the cameras began rolling on The Rock Nov. 9 to Dec. 11.

To lend authenticity to the story, set in the early 1900s, Norwegian set designer Karl Juliusson and Newfoundland local construction coordinator Marty Sexton turned a vacated brewery into a turn-of-the-century fish processing plant, creating the largest indoor set the province has seen.

While the area is stocked with shut-down fisheries, their modern-day equipment made them unsuitable for the shoot.

And if the smell of stale beer still lingers in the air, it won’t for long, as the set decor includes real fish blood and guts and around five tons of dried salted cod. Pittman says there will be some orientation as the crew and actors become accustomed to the aroma.

St. John’s quaint cluster of residences around the rocks of the harbor, The Outer Battery, is being transported back in time to a bustling coastal fishing village by replacing building facades with old wood. And since the city is in the background, the production team has a schooner waiting in the wings to sail by and block it out whenever necessary.

After extensive research, a period logging camp consisting of low log rustic structures was built in Gander.

Misery Harbor is the story of a boy determined to become an author who runs away from his Norwegian home and takes a job on a schooner heading for North America. When he is harassed by the crew members, he takes refuge in a Newfoundland fishing community.

Alliance Releasing will handle Canadian distribution, Goldwyn Films of London will distribute worldwide.