* Fireworks, Slan sign first-look deal

Fireworks Entertainment has inked a first-look development deal with producer Jon Slan, founder of defunct Toronto prodco Paragon Entertainment.

The agreement gives Fireworks, a subsidiary of CanWest Entertainment, first right of refusal on future projects from Slan as well as those in development.

* Cube scores in France

After two weeks on French screens, Vincenzo Natali’s Cube was rated the number two movie in France, outgrossing David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and Hollywood hits such as Shakespeare in Love.

An initiative of the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project, the low-budget feature, shot for under $500,000, raked in us$936,473 for the two weeks ending May 11.

The sci-fi thriller was initially released on 88 screens by French distributor Metropolitan Filmexport, then rolled out to 156 screens across the country.

Justin Whyte, executive in charge of production for the ffp, says while all films that have come out of the program have been acquired for domestic and international distribution, Cube is the most commercially successful to date.

* Shavick Award winners

Jochen Schliessler has picked up the grand prize worth $10,000 in the inaugural Shavick Awards in Vancouver, recognizing the best emerging directors in Western Canada. The 35-year-old Schliessler directed and wrote The Fisherman and His Wife, a short film about survival produced by Diane Patrick O’Connor and David Hauka. Fisherman debuted at the Vancouver International Film Festival and has been accepted by the Toronto International Film Festival.

Second prize, worth $5,000, went to Harry Killas, who wrote and directed Babette’s Feet, a short romantic comedy involving a man with a foot fetish. His previous award-winning works include Triangle Below Canal and Fortunate Son. Babette’s Feet was sponsored by the National Screen Institute and debuted at the 1999 Local Heroes festival in Edmonton.

Andrew Currie took third prize and $2,000 for Night of the Living, produced through the Canadian Film Centre in 1997. The 19-minute short is about an imaginative boy and his alcoholic father.

* Covitec leases TQS studios

Quebec’s largest technical service company, Groupe Covitec, has reached an agreement with Television Quatre Saisons to lease the tqs facilities and studios at 405 Ogilvy Ave.

Later this summer, tqs plans to relocate its newsroom and other services in the expanded downtown/Old Montreal Quebecor building on McGill Street.

Claude Gagnon, Covitec president and ceo, says Studio b at tqs will be upgraded for the benefit of independent producers, including producers supplying tqs in the new season.

‘This agreement is in keeping with the current tendancy for producers to resort to subcontracting,’ adds Gagnon. Luc Douon, vp programming and operations at tqs, says the decision will in no way affect the personnel at tqs.’

Covitec is an Astral Communications subsidiary (63%). It listed on the me under the ctk trading symbol.

* CanWest listed on WSE

CanEest Global Communications shares are now trading on the Winnipeg Stock Exchange. The company says the listing is part of an ongoing effort to increase trading convenience for the investment community and to demonstrate CanWest Global’s commitment to business in Manitoba. CanWest Global’s subordinate voting shares and non-voting shares are trading under the symbols cgs.s and cgs.a, respectively.

CanWest Global is also traded on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.