Vancouver: First-time feature producer Andrew Ooi of Vancouver’s Endless Entertainment has sold the worldwide rights to his Scream spoof to Lions Gate Films and has signed a five-picture production deal with Edge Entertainment in Saskatoon.

The distribution deal for I Know What You Screamed Last Semester, puts the us$4-million ($5.9-million) comedy in the black prior to the theatrical release this spring or summer, says Ooi. Produced and directed by Canadians but shot in Los Angeles, I Know What You Screamed Last Semester bucks the trend of u.s. productions coming north. John Blanchard (sctv, Kids in the Hall) is the director, while Americans Joe Nelms and Sue Bailey wrote the script.

Coproducer Rhino, which previously did spoof film Plump Fiction and Sea Dragon, is owned by Canadian Robert Shaw, grand nephew of Hong Kong broadcasting and distribution czar Run Run Shaw. Robert Shaw also financed the forthcoming feature Dungeons and Dragons.

The story for I Know What You Screamed Last Semester, which capitalizes on the popularity of recent teen horror films, is set at Bulimia Falls High School where some of its most popular students wind up dead.

Tom Arnold and Tiffany Amber-Thiessen play the lead characters investigating the murders, but the show is filled with cameos including rapper/actor Coolio, Jimmy J.J. Walker, Rose Marie, one-time mtv vj Simon Rex and Shirley Jones.

According to Ooi, the production of I Know What You Screamed Last Semester was an irritation for Miramax, which produced its own us$12-million to us$15-million ($17-million to $22-million) Scream spoof in Vancouver last summer with director Keenen Ivory Wayans. Ooi says Miramax tried first to buy his film and then it tried to get Ooi and producers to change the name. The Miramax film, formerly called Scream if You Know What I Did Last Halloween, is now called Scary Movie and returned to Vancouver in March for reshoots.

Meanwhile, the Endless deal with Edge Entertainment was signed in January. In the agreement, says Ooi, Edge will provide up to 30% of the budget for thrillers made for up to $3 million. Production will begin as soon as the companies can find the right scripts, says Ooi.

Because Edge is funded by money from the Mennonite community, Ooi’s next two features in development won’t be part of the new deal.

Paper Love is a us$1.2-million ($1.8-million) gay romantic comedy, while Kumarajiva is an action-adventure feature that has a us$750,000 ($1.1-million) investment from a Singapore monastery. Both films will apply to qualify under the Singapore-Canadian coproduction treaty and could go to camera this calendar year.