Imagine waking up one morning just in time to see your 12-year-old son sink a machete into your brother’s skull. Then you notice the boy has already hacked to pieces your brother’s wife and two daughters, both still toddlers.

This grisly scene is precisely what greeted George Oboma on March 11, 1998 at 7 a.m., in Kitgum, Acholiland, Uganda. His son, who had disappeared three months earlier, was kidnapped and turned into a killer by the Ugandan warlord, General Joseph Kony, and the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army – the subject of Toronto-based Paradox Productions’ doc Soldier Boys.

Currently in development with ctv and written by David Hallam, the $450,000 one-off will investigate the lives of some of the roughly 12,000 young boys, mostly under the age of 16, wrapped up in Kony’s army in Northern Uganda.

The production also intends to meet up with Kony, who put out a public invitation in the independent Kampala paper The Monitor on July 18, 1998, welcoming ‘anyone who can dare to come out without fear and meet [Kony].’

The team will travel with contact Betty Begumbe, former minister of northern affairs in the Ugandan government of Yoweri Museveni, ‘and one of the only people in the world Kony trusts,’ says producer Joel Awerbuck.

The doc, which is expected to start shooting in Toronto in April, and in Uganda for seven weeks starting in June, is coproduced with Halifax-based Triad Film Productions.

Paradox holds a 75% interest in the project, while Triad is a 25% shareholder.

Peter d’Entremont of Triad is exec producing. Paradox principals Awerbuck, Hallam and Christa Schadt are producing. Schadt is also directing.

The film has been presold to Denmark’s Bech Films and Vision tv has the second window in Canada.

*Snow Line brings Dead By Monday back to Canada

It was no coincidence that Swiss prodco Snow Line Pictures chose Toronto and Niagara Falls to shoot its latest feature Dead By Monday. After all, that’s where the film’s set. It also gives Torontonian scribe Myra Fried the opportunity to keep a close eye on her second feature film, a project eight years in the making.

Originally, Fried (Riverdale) tried to get the project financed in Canada. She even received a couple chunks of development money from the Ontario Film Development Corporation, but before the film had a chance to materialize, the ofdc froze, and ultimately, discontinued funding for feature film production. Telefilm Canada had reservations about the subject matter and Fried began to realize that the probability of making the film in Canada was slim.

Then, in 1993 after a handful of rewrites, she was introduced to producer Margrit Ritzmann and director Curt Truninger of Snow Line. They were eager to meet with Fried after seeing her first feature, Hurt Penguins. Impressed with her second script, a deal was signed…

Dead By Monday is a romantic comedy about two people who decide to kill themselves. Alex, played by British actor Tim Dutton (Patriot Games), is an angry scribe suffering from writer’s block. Julie, played by British actor Helen Baxendale (Ordinary Decent Criminal), is a young widow who after discovering that her beloved late husband had led a double life with another woman and a child, talks Alex into a suicide pact. She decides that drowning is the way to go, and the two head off to Niagara Falls with the plan to hurl themselves in. ‘A lot of interesting and funny stuff happens on their way,’ says Fried.

Budgeted at just under $3 million, Dead By Monday is cofinanced with German producer Ulrich Felsberg (Buena Vista Social Club, Paris, Texas) of Road Movies. Toronto-based producer/ director Carlo Laconti is coproducing with Snow Line’s Ritzmann, who is also exec producing. Sandie Pereira is line producer.

Shot between Nov. 18 and Dec. 20 under the direction of Truninger (Waiting For Michelangelo), the film is currently being edited by Ron Sanders in Toronto.

Presales have been made to Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Italy.

*Sound Venture marks the millennium

ottawa-based Sound Venture Productions has received more than $83,000 in support from the Canada Millennium Partnership Program for its latest doc venture, Stones of History.

The two-part special, produced for History Television and scn, looks at the design and history of the Parliament Buildings, and at the same time offers a glimpse into the history of Canada. ‘There’s a lot of folklore and history and tradition, but absolutely no politics,’ says producer Neil Bregman.

Andre Levoie is directing.

The project was also awarded support from the Bell New Media Fund.

‘We’re going to do a big interactive website about the Parliament Buildings,’ says Bregman, who will also be producing teachers guides and videos in French and English.

The entire budget works out to $500,000.

The project, produced in English and French, will be shot in Ottawa from mid-January to mid-February, and Bregman’s hoping for a Canada Day 2000 broadcast.

Meantime, the prodco is currently in preprod with the children’s series Toy Castle for Treehouse tv, scn and tfo.

To be produced in English and French, the $2.7-million live-action series, comprised of 26 half-hours, was born out of the characters from the company’s one-hour ballet special Tin Soldiers, which aired on cbc, Radio-Canada, Disney Channel and ytv.

Because the series is narrated, it has an international appeal, says Bregman. And because it’s being produced in both languages and therefore has two first windows – Treehouse and tfo – Bregman says ‘ it helped in getting the ctf funding. It helped in hitting the threshold in licence fees.’

Bregman is exec producing and sharing a producer credit with Katherine Jeans, who is also directing.

The series starts shooting in Winnipeg in March.

‘We couldn’t shoot in Ottawa because there’s no cast and crew. Toronto’s too busy and we’d lose the ctf regional bonus. But the truth is, Winnipeg has a fantastic tax-credit program and a small, very interesting industry,’ says Bregman. As an added bonus, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is supplying the dancers.

Decode Entertainment holds international distribution rights.

*Nakamura offers alternative financing

forget the fact that Canadian banks red-light gap financing and government funding agencies strangle you with Cancon quotas, producer/financier Ken Nakamura says his new middleman financing company can get you up to 70% of your budget and mass international distribution.

Recognizing that Canadian producers dependent on government funding assistance are having an increasingly hard time making profitable independent features, especially since the recent Cinar/sodec fallout, Nakamura has set up a first-look agreement with Medienbeteiligungsund Produktion – an accelerated capital cost allowance equity fund in Germany.

The fund promises to award 50% to 70% of a film’s budget, provided the budget, director and lead actor are approved, says Nakamura, a veteran sales exec, producer and ceo of Toronto-based Tsunami Entertainment. In return, it will retain all rights, including cinema, video, dvd, satellite, pay-per-view. Ten percent will be given upon notification, 10% on wrap, and the balance on delivery.

Nakamura has also set up ‘relationships’ with a network of distributors, including the new ‘Euro superbuyers,’ who he says will account for 40% to 50% of a film’s budget through pan-European presales. Together with the fund, Nakamura proposes that through his upstart, he will be able to structure 100% collateralizing of production budgets to producers.