Hollywood heavies Juliette Lewis (Way of the Gun) and Gina Gershon (The Insider) along with Canadian actor Kelly Harms (The Crossing) have been cast to star in Serendipity Point Films’ Claire’s Hat.

Written by Semi Chellas (Dead Aviators) and to be directed by Bruce McDonald (Highway 61), the frantically paced film noir caper tells the story of a woman on the run, who over a 24-hour stretch finds herself way over her head after being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alliance Atlantis Communications is fully financing the $5-million film and has worldwide distribution, with Serendipity handling u.s. sales.

Robert Lantos and Wendy Grean are the producers, with Julia Rosenberg the coproducer.

Principal photography runs from Oct. 16 to Dec. 4 in Toronto.

Lantos’ interest in Claire’s Hat goes back three and a half years when he was still ceo of pre-merged Alliance Communications, but at that time McDonald was already underway on a deal with the former Behaviour to produce and distribute the film.

Behaviour’s Montreal-based production arm Lux Films was initially developing the script for which it had received Licence Fee Program funding in April 1999 and a prebuy offer from Citytv earlier that year. Behaviour Classics was to distribute worldwide.

Claire’s Hat was supposed to be shot in July 1999, but when Behaviour failed to complete the financing, and with Lantos persistently pushing for the film, McDonald finally regained the rights from Behaviour and struck a production/distribution deal with Serendipity in early June.

And thus the powerhouse producer and his media-giant backer saved a film that might never have seen the light of day.

‘It is a gem of a screenplay – one of those rare things when a screenplay sort of sings,’ says Lantos, who admits that every three months over the past three years he called McDonald to inquire about the film.

‘I’ve always wanted to make a film that in a really clever way stars Toronto as Toronto. I’ve also always wanted to make a film noir and wanted to work with Bruce,’ he adds.

Serendipity is also in development with Paul Gross on the feature Men with Brooms, Atom Egoyan on a film called Ararat, David Cronenberg on what Lantos describes as a ‘special and unusual thriller,’ Jeremy Podeswa on Fugitive Pieces and Mordecai Richler on Barney’s Version.

*Sleeping Giant beefs up production volume

Since Chum Television acquired 40% equity in Toronto-based Sleeping Giant Productions in June of last year, the producer has been hard at work increasing its volume and moving into the area of feature-length dramatic production.

First up is The Red Sea Dolphin, a 90-minute feature in development.

Coproduced by Sleeping Giant and director Arie Caspi’s A.C. Pictures of Israel, the $1.7-million film, written by Vance Chapman, is based on a true story and tells the coming-of-age tale of a motherless Bedouin boy who tries to adjust to a new life in a desolate seaside village in the Middle East. When he begins a magical relationship with a dolphin, he learns the true power of love, despite the tragedies that have befallen him.

Sleeping Giant president and ceo Jim Hanley and Vanessa Laufer (Shabbat Shalom) are producing.

The film will likely be shot in the Middle East sometime in 2002.

Chum Television is the broadcaster.

Also on the development slate is The Hunt, a one-hour documentary for Discovery Canada about the ancient ritual and disturbing sport of hunting.

Written by The Globe and Mail’s Val Ross and produced by Hanley, who will codirect with Margaret Konopacki, the doc will be shot in Northern Ontario, b.c. and Quebec from spring through fall 2001.

Other projects on the go include Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History, based on the recently released book by Canadian journalist Erna Paris, is a four-part, one-hour doc series that explores the impact of ethnic and cultural atrocities in Japan, Germany, France and the u.s.

Paris will have an on-camera presence as the stories will be filtered through her research experience.

Hanley is producing and codirecting the $1.2-million series with Konopacki and Dan Robinson.

Globe and Mail arts reporter Michael Posner is writing.

Vision tv has first window and Canadian Learning Television has second.

Access is distributing in Canada, with Igel Media holding German rights.

The Elephant Between Us, a coprod with Mexico’s Canal 40, is a two-part, one-hour doc series examining what it’s like to live beside the u.s.

Hanley is producing and directing, but the prodco is still in negotiations with its Mexican partners.

Citytv is the Canadian broadcaster.

Monster in the Mirror: Serial Murder is a three-part, one-hour doc series, produced in association with the University of Guelph and based on a criminology course taught there.

Budgeted at $900,000, the series, produced by Hanley and directed by David Cherniack for tvontario, separates fact from fiction as it relates to serial killers, and draws on the expertise of University of California profiler and criminologist Candice Skrapace.

On Sleeping Giant’s production slate is Jon Kabat-Zinn, two one-hours exploring the mind/body connection as it relates to stress reduction and healing the family, with a focus on mindful parenting.

Produced by Hanley and Patricia Michael in association with New York home video distrib Winstar TV and Video and Pleiades Programming, the $130,000 series, shooting in Toronto, will air Nov. 16 on Vision.

Shattered Glass, a one-hour doc for Vision and History Television, looks at a group of chaplains from all over Europe who collected the stained glass pieces left over from churches that were bombed during wwii. The glass was later used in churches in Canada.

The doc is directed and produced by Brian Flemming.

Finally, Sleeping Giant is in production on the fourth season of Scanning the Movies, an in-depth analysis of contemporary film hosted by media literacy expert John Pungente, s.j.

Part of the Cable in the Classroom project, the eight-part, half-hour series focuses on films provided by Warner Bros.

Pungente and Tiina Soomet are producing the series, with Robinson directing and Triptych Media’s Robin Cass writing.

Bravo! broadcasts the series, which is produced in association with wb and distrib Access.

*Blomeley Transmedia goes interactive

Ottawa-based Blomeley Transmedia, producers of Fox Sports International’s number-one distributed fitness series Kardio Knockout, is developing an interactive television network for fitness buffs.

Spinning off from the success of kk, which is available in 111 million households in 50 countries, The Total Being Network will exist as a channel on the Internet for which Blomeley will produce and eventually license programming.

‘It’ll be a combination of the virtual gym and cyber-fitness studio,’ says producer and Blomeley president Ed Blomeley.

The network will feature everything from workout videos and medical/fitness advice to workout shows that cover fitness and defense, and health and wellness.

The network will spin off from the prototype for the kk website, which launches at the end of October, says Blomeley.

Meantime, the producer is in development with the cbc on Dave Stephens’ Book Club (CBC Radio’s Ontario Today), a talk show Blomeley describes as a take on Oprah’s monthly book club, except this one will be broadcast on tv, radio and the Internet.

The goal for the 13-part, half-hour series, produced by Dawolu Saul, is to attach a sponsor, like Indigo or Chapters, which would provide a setting for the book clubs. *