Montreal: Muse Entertainment Enterprises and its production affiliates in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are producing more than $60 million in proprietary Canadian film and tv this year.

The volume of production makes Muse a major new player on the Canadian film and tv scene, and does not include 1999 service productions or the foreign portion on coproductions.

Muse Productions in Montreal started principal photography last week on the $4-million Pierre Gang-directed tv movie Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a historical drama based on the classic (public domain) Washington Irving story. Brent Carver stars, Danielle Rohrbach is the producer. ctv in Canada and Odyssey Network in the u.s. are the broadcasters and Hallmark is distributing internationally. The production is the first for Muse in Quebec.

Muse will also shoot the Jeff Schecter feature The Tracker in Montreal, likely starting in late August. The $8-million contemporary crime drama, based on a Robert Geoffrion screenplay, is being produced by Pierre Laberge and Don Carmody, with Muse president Michael Prupas exec producing. Franchise in the u.s. has foreign rights.

‘We have not yet done either a Canadian or u.s. deal on the project,’ says Prupas. ‘We’re trying to put together a bank financing deal as we speak.’

Prupas says he’s relying on busy coproducer Carmody for ‘strategic advice.’ Carmody is one of the exec producers on the big-budget John Travolta sci-fi feature Battlefield Earth, currently filming in Quebec.

In Vancouver, Muse affiliate Dogwood Productions and producer and company president Lisa Richardson are in editing on The Guilty, an Anthony Waller feature coproduction with J&M Entertainment of the u.k. The film, a suspense and morality tale of respected lawyers gone bad, stars Bill Pullman (Lake Placid, Independence Day), talented Canadian actor Devon Sawa and Gabrielle Anwar (Scent of a Woman). The movie was shot for $30 million, $20 million in financing from Canada, and Prupas is currently negotiating u.s. with j&m, and Canadian theatrical rights.

‘We’ve been able to hold off thus far in terms of selling the project and have had test screenings in Los Angeles. The reactions were over the top. We’re really excited about it,’ says Prupas.

Dogwood has also completed three service productions this year. Muse holds 90% of the equity in Dogwood.

Pebblehut slate

In Toronto, Muse subsidiary Pebblehut Productions and Susan Murdoch are the contracted service producers on the one-hour ctv drama series The City, exec produced by Toronto’s Sarrazin Couture Productions. ctv has reordered 20 new episodes for ’99/2000. It’s budgeted in the $1.1-million-an-hour range.

Producer Marilyn Stonehouse is shooting the new ctv drama series Twice in a Lifetime. Stonehouse also shot the tv biopic The Rick Nelson Story. ctv has ordered 13 one-hour episodes of Twice in a Lifetime, at a cost of $1.1 million an hour, and Prupas says there’s a solid option for nine more episodes for ’99/2000, for a total of 22. uhf station group PaxNet (Pax-tv) has picked up the u.s. rights.

Prupas says the $60-million figure in proprietary Canadian production in ’99 could go even higher, with new announcements likely to be made this fall. The company is currently seeking a full-time development officer.

Muse affiliate production in ’98 was restricted to service shoots.

Muse is a partnership between Prupas, a prominent entertainment lawyer formerly with Heenan Blaikie, Montreal; Pebblehut, a long-established Toronto-based service producer; Pearson Television International in the u.k.; and l.a.-based producer Howard Braunstein.