The creative team behind the long-running cbc radio comedy Rumours and Boarders, has scored a development deal with the national public broadcaster to morph the radio hit into a tv sitcom.

Series creator Paul Willis and series principal/producer David Eisner, along with Canadian comedy legend Eugene Levy and Vancouver-based Forefront Entertainment are set to deliver the first drafts of two scripts in January.

If greenlit, Levy will be the supervising producer for the first season of production. In addition to writing and producing subsequent seasons, the SCTV alumnus also plans to appear as a guest star on the tv version of Rumours & Boarders.

Eisner will be involved as an actor/producer and Willis will be an integral part of the writing team.

Helena Cynamon along with Karen Trobetzkoi have been developing the project for Forefront who will most likely distribute the series as well as coproduce if it gets an order.

George Anthony, cbc creative head, tv arts, music, science and variety, accepted the show for development.

Rumours & Boarders ran as a radio show on cbc for six years from 1992 until last year.

‘We have all this material, and the writers certainly know how the characters work,’ says Eisner. ‘So we’re in a terrific position to land with both feet running.’

Rumours & Boarders is described as a family comedy that explores what happens when a well-to-do couple and their two children suddenly find it necessary to open their home to roomers and one very indelible boarder named Mrs. Gruenweld.

The producers say a tv version of the show will appeal to ‘the widest and most vital of all demographics – families.’

*Sleeping Giant wakes for Great Speeches

Toronto prodco Sleeping Giant Productions has entered into an official Canada/u.k. coproduction treaty agreement with Bravo! and British Pathe for 20 half-hour episodes of a series titled Great Speeches.

Airing on Bravo! in Canada, Great Speeches will go into production in early 1999, with each episode celebrating a great speech in history. Actors will provide dramatic recreations of the famous orations and stock footage from the British Pathe film library and the bbc will also be used.

Among the great speeches from history chosen to be profiled will be those delivered by Robert Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, Clarence Darrow, Sojourner Truth, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Leon Trotsky, Martin Luther King Jr., Anwar Sadat, Vaclav Havel, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle, William Faulkner, and Latin-American revolutionary Che Guevara.

Edmonton-based Great North International has acquired worldwide rights to the series. International broadcasters will be announced shortly.

In other Sleeping Giant news, in January, the company will go into production on a one-hour special about crime fiction novelist James Lee Burke. Bravo! in Canada has also licensed this production.

Combining interviews and dramatizations of scenes from Burke’s novels, the special will explore the complex, sinister and spiritual world of one of America’s top crime writers.

*Amigo & Me shoots pilot but not for CBC

Radical Sheep Productions (Big Comfy Couch, Ruffus The Dog) will shoot a pilot episode for their new cbc children’s series Amigo & Me, in mid-January.

But Radical Sheep president Rob Mills says the Amigo pilot shoot isn’t for the benefit of the cbc.

‘They’re already very happy with how the show has been conceived and structured,’ he says. ‘We’re producing the pilot episode to do some advance sales of the series to broadcasters outside Canada.’

The Amigo & Me series is slated to go into production on 65 quarter-hour episodes in summer 1999. The show follows the adventures of a young child and a very large, and very hairy puppet character named Amigo.

The Radical Sheep shop will handle the puppet design and construction for the series.

John Leitch, ceo of Radical Sheep says the Amigo & Me property has ‘immense potential in other media and ancillaries.’

*New production finance guide

The Ontario Film Development Corporation and Telefilm Canada have teamed up on a new book titled Canadian Production Finance: A Producer’s Handbook, which aims to de-mystify the business requirements of production financing for the emerging producer.

After canvassing small production companies on behalf of Telefilm and the OFDC, says the guide’s author Kathy Avrich Johnson, ‘it became quite clear that what was missing was a publication that puts together in one place a practical guidance and annotated examples of all the finance-related documents they need.’

Bill House, Telefilm’s director of operations-Ontario, says that while the information contained in the book is ‘by no means definitive, [it] does offer a clue to the meaning of the showbiz universe and should help our clients in their dealings with us and the myriad of financing partners available to high-quality Canadian production.’

Because it is aimed at small- and medium-sized producers, House says the handbook fits well with Telefilm’s corporate objective of steering funding toward such companies. ‘This handbook will, we think, play a substantial role in helping new producers and companies with the increasing complexities of deal making in the Canadian context.’

Canadian Production Finance: A Producer’s Handbook includes samples of rights and coproduction agreements, recoupment schedules, budget cost reports, cash flow forms and distribution agreements. It is available from the ofdc office (416) 314-6858.

*Sprockets Expands in ’99

Sprockets, the Toronto International Film Festival for Children 2nd edition will run April 10-18, 1999 and include two public weekends this year.

Jane Schoettle, Sprockets director and programmer, says the addition of a second public weekend is due to the success of last year’s inaugural event. Sprockets will once again include a school program during the week.

The public weekends (Apr. 10 & 11 and Apr. 16, 17 & 18) are divided into two categories: features films for children aged four through six and for children seven and up.