Entering its second year of operation, Annex Entertainment is moving away from service work and towards more proprietary productions.

When the company launched last September, the plan, according to president and ceo Richard Borchiver, was to do service deals and get Annex’s name out to the international market.

After a year in business and with half-a-dozen service projects under its belt, including the $5-million feature Woman Wanted starring Kiefer Sutherland, Holly Hunter and Michael Moriarty, the company is gearing up for a full slate of seven features of its own.

In collaboration with Trinity Pictures producer John Gillespie, Annex coproduced, financed and is distributing the completed feature All The Fine Lines, and recently wrapped the romantic comedy Silverman starring Eugene Levy and Joe Pantoliano.

Fall, starring Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) and Daniel Baldwin, who is also directing, is in the midst of shooting in Toronto and has been presold to European distributors. An action film, Fall, is the story of a would-be mob informant and his attempt to outsmart the fbi while at the same time trying to hold on to a lottery ticket worth $42 million.

Next on the slate is another three-pack with Gillespie: Red Racer, a family movie about a possessed bicycle; American Roulette, a gambling flick; and Last Weekend, a Big Chill-type film for the younger crowd. All the coming films will be shot in Toronto with budgets in the $2-million to $3-million range. Borchiver and Paul Wynn are executive producers.

‘How we are able to do these at a price that makes sense is that we are using the same crew, making it almost like a series production, keeping the same people going from show to show.’ says Borchiver. ‘It is very important to us to maintain a level of consistency with the crews. With the onslaught of American productions shooting here it is tough to maintain loyalty.’

Outside of the deal with Trinity, Annex and u.s. producer/distributor Barry Barnholtz are in the final stages of development on a horror feature called Mangler.

Also in development is a kids’ series called Shivers based on a series of books written by the popular M.D. Spense.