Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Mask) has joined executive producers Martin Harbury (Bar Harbour Films) and Robert Walker and producer Darlene MacLeod in the final stages of The Romanov Crown.

An independent romantic thriller, The Romanov Crown is set in Leningrad in 1991, the time of the political coup against Mihkail Gorbachev (who has expressed interest in playing himself in the feature). Talent has not been nailed down yet, but Malcolm McDowell and Michael York are both being considered.

Harbury is heading to Poland this month to meet with prospective coproduction partners and is hoping to get the cameras rolling in St. Petersburg and Poland this summer. Projected budget on the 10-week shoot is us$10 million.

Canadian writer Chris Bryant (The Awakening, Don’t Look Now) penned the script.

* That swing thing

Ottawa-based Almadon Productions is swinging into action on a multitiered project celebrating Canada’s legendary jazzman Oscar Peterson.

The project kicks off in Ottawa Sept. 16 with a six-city North American tour covering Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

The tour featuring Peterson and his Big Band playing 1940s swing music will be documented for a behind-the-scenes feature called The Will To Swing. Don Young will direct and Gene Less is the writer on the film, which will tell the personal and professional stories of the artists featured on the tour.

Chicago Swing is a multi-camera recording of the Swing Magic Chicago show. It will be for television and will focus more on the music than the people.

While no broadcaster or distributor has come on board yet, Marni Fullerton, president of Almadon, says they are in the midst of negotiations.

In addition to its film components, the project is spawning a double live cd from the tour, a commemorative book of tour photos by jazz photographer John Reeves, a permanent exhibit at the National Library of Canada, and a cross-country exhibition of pictures and memorabilia from Peterson’s 50 years of making music.

The overall budget for the project is $7 million, with funding being provided from ticket sales and sponsorships.

‘We are like a big little company and we have been living and dying by the cable fund and on the eip decisions for the past five years,’ says Young, who is a partner in the prodco. ‘We had the opportunity to put this project together so we held our breath and decided we would move the company in a direction away from the cycle of the cable fund.’

Almadon produces Travels with Mom, which airs in 12 countries, and Life Space (26 half-hours) for Discovery.

* Blissed out at the NFB

National Film Board producer Silva Basmajian has a full production slate ahead covering comedians, comics and kisses.

Basmajian and director Jeanette Loakman explore the social and cultural history of smooching in Slippery Blisses: What’s in a Kiss?

The hour-long doc lensed by Rudi Blahacek (The Herd) is being shot for $350,000 and has taken the crew to Paris, Las Vegas and North Carolina. It will cover the kiss as portrayed in painting and sculpture, the kiss of death, as well as both sociological and scientific perspectives on why we are attracted to the act.

Some highlights of the film include a look at a kissing machine invented in the 1940s by cosmetics giant Max Factor. The contraption was used to see how long lipstick would stay on busy lips. Slippery Blisses also features a chat with William Kane, who, aside from writing the book The Art of Kissing, conducts sold-out seminars on how to properly pucker.

Steve Weslak will edit the film, which wraps at the end of the month.

Basmajian and director Michel Jones are nearing completion of shooting a doc on ‘the four months surrounding the rise and fall of Canada’s first and only female prime minister,’ Kim Campbell.

This $350,000 project was lensed by dop Joan Hutton (Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows) in Ottawa, Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal. Greg West will edit.

Director Drew Hayden Taylor has brought together a group of native comedians for a documentary on aboriginal humor.

‘We have seen so many films on the various problems in their communities but this is a side we never see,’ says Basmajian. ‘The best-kept secret among the aboriginal community is their sense of humor.’

Mark McCurdy is behind the lens.

Still in the research stages is Personal Demons, Personal Heroes: Todd McFarlane’s Story.

A Calgary native and comic book artist, McFarlane is the talent behind Spawn and is the owner of Mark McGwire’s $3-million baseball.

Basmajian says, ‘McFarlane is a doc waiting to happen, he is a Canadian boy known more internationally than at home.’

The plan is to start shooting this summer under director Kenton Vaughan.

* Santa’s back

After taking some time to determine whether to continue production on Must Be Santa, the cbc mow is back in front of the camera.

All location shoots for the Christmas drama were finished prior to the cbc technicians’ strike and the remaining 20 days of the shoot, which started rolling May 14, are taking place in two cbc studios.

The cast, including Arnold Pinnock (The City), Deanna Milligan (The X-Files) and Dabney Coleman (Buffalo Bill), are back in action, but word is still out on whether director Brad Turner (Major Crime) will return.

* SAFO gears up

First-time animation filmmakers get the chance to show their stuff at the second Student Animation Festival of Ottawa, Oct. 21-24.

Although safo is smaller in size than its counterpart, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the events are pretty much the same, with the only big difference being that the competitive programs are only open to students or rookie filmmakers. Deadline for submissions is June 15.

SAFO 99 will feature five categories of competition: graduate films, first film for professionals, undergrad films, high school students, and kids under 12. Festival director Chris Robinson says he has received entries from Japan, Estonia, France, Belgium and Israel.

Workshops will focus on the abcs of animation and will take participants on a chronological journey from the roots of an idea right through the development process and into distribution.

‘We are trying to create a model budget for animation out of this that can be applied to making anything from a seven-minute to a 22-minute film,’ says Robinson. ‘Telefilm has sort of a model for features and for live-action, but nothing exists for animation.’