Preproduction begins this January in Winnipeg on Without A Word, a Minds Eye Pictures service production starring Patrick Swayze. The $7-million picture is a contemporary Flashdance-type story from l.a.-based Franchise Pictures. Principal photography begins in March 2000.

A March start is also set for War Brides, Minds Eye’s $7-million international coproduction with the u.k.’s Random Harvest. Bill Talmage and Lyndon Chubbik’s Toronto company Vanguard Entertainment is also partnering on the feature.

War Brides is the story of several British women who marry Canadian servicemen and start a new life in North America while their husbands are at war. The script comes from Angela Workman. Chubbik (Kiss Toledo Goodbye) will direct. The project has been licensed to the A-Channel Drama Fund. Odeon Films is the Canadian theatrical distributor.

*Red Devil options Vanderhaege novel

John Hazlett and James Gottselig of Calgary-based Red Devil Films have acquired the rights to the Guy Vanderhaege novel My Present Age.

The dark comedy is the story of a hard-drinking, snide-talking guy who quits his job in the Eaton’s china department after his wife leaves him and retreats into a fantasy world. When his wife contacts him but then disappears again, he goes in search of her in the dead of winter in Saskatoon.

‘It is an extremely funny novel, but very dry and dark, not necessarily a happy story,’ says Gottselig, who is producing.

Hazlett is adapting for the big screen and will direct.

A first draft is complete on Boomtown, also penned by Hazlett. This is the story of a wannabe author who drops out of his life and goes to Fort McMurray, Alta., to work in the oil industry and save some money to write his novel.

Development money has been secured from A-Channel and the Harold Greenberg Fund. Hazlett is slated to direct, with Gottselig the producer.

The Red Devil feature Bad Money will be released theatrically by Red Sky Entertainment on Oct. 29.

*First feature in production

‘It’s a rave movie about a native of Sabu who sleeps with 2,000 guys and causes the end of the world,’ explains Winnipeg filmmaker Noam Gonick of his first dramatic feature, Hey, Happy!, which he wrote and is directing and producing through his company Big Daddy Bear Guts Incorporated.

Gonick first began work on this story of Sabu – who runs a second-hand open-air porn market – more than 10 years ago while he was a student at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto. Gonick’s previous work includes the documentary Guy Maddin: Waiting For Twilight.

The location shoot is underway in the French Quarter of Winnipeg, the stockyards and Garbage Hill, the site of an old garbage dump where the rave scene will be played out over three days.

The cast includes Winnipeg native Jeremie Yuen as Sabu and Torontonian Johnny Simone as his buddy Rickie G. The budget is set at $92,000, although Gonick is seeking additional financing for post-production. The budget has been put together with a $65,000 Canada Council Grant and funding from the Manitoba Arts Council and Manitoba Film and Sound.

Gonick is shooting in the super-wide format 16mm Cinemascope for the feel of the classic films of the ’50s and in tribute to the style of the Italian neorealists who also used this extra-wide rectangular screen.

Production wraps Oct. 25.

*Taiga update

Henrik Danstrup of Denmark’s Balboa 2 Productions, Axel Helgeland of Norway’s Northern Lights and special effects guru Martin Gant (Alien, The Mission, Star Wars 2, Superman 2 & 4, Little Shop of Horrors) were recently in Winnipeg scouting locations for the $10-million feature film Taiga. Credo Entertainment is a 30% minority coproducer on the feature, described as a modern-day Lord of the Flies in which a group of teenagers must fend for themselves after a plane crash in Taiga, a vast, barren area just south of the tundra in the Soviet Union.

The film will shoot in the Flin Flon area, north of Winnipeg. Production dates are still to be firmed up, but will either run this winter into the following summer (of the 50-day shoot, 35 require winter settings) or begin late next summer and run into the following winter. Some second unit will go to Alberta.

Peder Norlund of Norway is the writer and director. Credo’s Kim Todd is the producer and Jamie Brown is executive producer

The European partners have approached American casting agent Avy Kauffman (The Sixth Sense) to put together the cast.

Europe and the u.s. are the focuses for presales and financing, says Brown. Balboa 2 and its parent company have a $25-million, five-picture deal with Fineline and Balboa is talking with the u.s. distributor to take on the film. A German post-production partner has brought money to the table. Presales in Scandinavia have been secured and European government funds are being sought to complete financing.

*WestWind develops animal biographies

While production of the fourth season of This Small Space for hgtv u.s. and Canada is underway at WestWind Productions, the Regina-based company has several other series in the works.

Discovery Canada, scn and Saskfilm have put down development funding on a biography series – this one profiling animals as opposed to humans.

The 13 half-hour, $900,000 wildlife series is a coproduction with 30-year wildlife cinematographer Bob Long of Waterhen Films in Regina. Following the approach of the endless array of biography programs, each episode tells the story of a specific animal to illustrate larger issues surrounding that species.

With the financial backing of scn and Saskfilm, WestWind is developing Landscapes of the Spirit, a documentary on sacred places in the Prairies. The one-hour will serve as a pilot for a potential national or international series exploring sacred spots.

Courtney Milne, a Saskatoon-based stills photographer who has shot a coffee-table book on international sacred places, is lending a hand on the project.

The $175,000 one-hour will include stops at First Nation sites such as Alberta’s Written On Stone and Wanuskewin in the Saskatchewan River Valley.

WestWind has completed a demo for Designer Guys, a series featuring an Oscar and Felix type pair of designers who take on challenging makeovers. The program will feature well-known Toronto designers Chris Hyndman and Steve Sabados and is now being pitched to potential broadcasters.

*Alberta National Writers Roundtable winners

Culled from 49 submissions from across Alberta, five scripts have been chosen for the latest edition of the National Screen Institute-Canada’s National Writers Roundtable, a series of competitions to develop regional screenplays from regional writers.

Taking part in the script-polishing sessions with story editor Allan Magee are Jane Dorsey with the feature screenplay Hardwired Angel, Katherine Koller’s half-hour script Cowboy Boots and a Corsage, Clem Martini’s half-hour Conversations With My Neighbor’s Pitbull, Megan Bishop Scott’s feature Gold Dust, and Diane M. Scott and Leanne Baugh-Peterson with the feature script Sanctuary.

At the end of the workshop, professional actors will debut the scripts to an audience of producers and broadcasters. The cold reading has been set for Sunday, Dec. 5.

The Alberta Writers Roundtable competition is presented by the nsi in partnership with CBC Alberta, CBC Training and Development and the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association.

For directors in Saskatchewan, Edmonton and Calgary, the nsi is offering Peak Performance: Directing Actors for Film and Television. In the three-day workshop, led by dramatic coach John Boylan, participants are instructed in techniques to draw the strongest possible performance from their talent. Peak Performance takes place Oct. 27-29 in Saskatoon in conjunction with the Reel Revel festival, Nov. 1-3 in Edmonton and Nov. 5-7 in Calgary. More details are available at www.nsi-canada.ca.

*Tri-Media closes, Thomega opens

Tony Towstego’s Saskatoon company Tri-Media Productions closed its doors in July due to bankruptcy. But not letting this setback stop him, Towstego has regrouped, found new financial backers and formed Thomega Entertainment, which willl produce children’s programming, feature films and documentaries, as well as take on corporate work. Towstego is president of production at the new entity.

*IA local opens in Calgary

Evidence of the growing amount of production in the Prairies, the International Photographers Guild, IATSE Local 669 has opened a satellite office in Calgary, situated at the CFB Studio Centre.

Joining the new office as a part-time field representative is Deborah Braun, formerly the business rep for IATSE Local 212 and a past executive director of the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association.

The Calgary local will service production companies and members and assist the Vancouver staff in areas relating to the growing volume of work in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

*Young filmmakers competition debuts

The Brandon Film Festival has announced a call for entries for its inaugural 30 Below Film & Video Competition for emerging Canadian filmmakers. The deadline for entries is Nov. 30. The film and video submissions can be of any time length and any genre, but in keeping with the focus on young emerging talent, the producer or director of the film/video must be under the age of 30 and Canadian.

Films and videos chosen for the 30 Below competition will be screened at the Brandon Film Festival, which unspools over four days beginning Feb. 3, 1000. Entering its 33rd year, the Brandon Film Festival is a public event which screens Canadian short films and features. The festival is an entirely non-profit event organized by volunteers.

The 30 Below component is being organized as a showcase for new Canadian independent films and a marketplace where broadcasters, distributors and producers can browse the works of young film and video makers and scout for talent.

Industry guests will be invited to attend, and a training and workshop component, which will include roundtable discussions with filmmakers, is being organized.

Cash and equipment service prizes, as well as broadcast licences, will be awarded by a jury to the top films in the competition. Winners will announced Feb. 6 at an awards ceremony. Potential sponsors are currently being rounded up.

More info can be found on the website – brandonu.ca/bff/30below/