Thomega Entertainment of Saskatoon is in post on Canada Remembers 2000, a one-hour documentary tribute to Canadian war veterans aimed at a demographic that ranges ‘from 16 to 80 – it’s a wide demographic, Canadians of all ages,’ says company president Anthony Towstego.

The documentary takes the unusual step of framing the ‘action’ with a contemporary air-show setting. The interviews, with war veterans from all branches of the military and most conflicts of the last century, were conducted over three days at an on-site studio at the Canada Remembers International Air Show in Saskatoon. Current pilots from the Snowbirds handle the bridging segments.

The production will make use of stock and archival footage as well as interviews with ‘nurses, combat troops, aviators, seamen and ground troops.’

With the links to the family-focused air show, the emphasis is clearly on speaking to younger generations.

‘We made sure to shoot the documentary in such a way that children are the observers,’ says Towstego. ‘We have one scene in a war museum in Saskatoon where the veterans are speaking to the children.’

Towstego, who is also on board as producer and director of Canada Remembers 2000, says he believes the doc, which will be versioned for foreign markets, will have special appeal to European audiences.

‘The veterans spoke very fondly of the European countries, like Holland, that treat them like royalty because they liberated them. That’s where I think we’ll do well, in those markets, because we look very positive to that market.’

The production comes from the same team that put together the 1999 doc Nikiskisinan, about Cree Indian soldiers from the Muskeg Lake Band who have fought for Canada throughout the century. The 49-minute one-off, which gets its title from the Cree word for ‘we remember then,’ aired on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in October.

Budgeted at $100,000, Canada Remembers 2000 is set for a May delivery date, with prebuyers CanWest Global and scn set to air the doc next year, probably in November. Funding also came from the Canadian Television Fund and Saskfilm.

Meantime, the world premiere of Murder Seen, the second film in an eight-picture deal struck between Thomega, Regina’s Minds Eye Pictures and France’s Saban International, opened the sixth annual Filmcan festival, running to Nov. 30 in Saskatoon.

Murder Seen was shot in Saskatoon in May. The first picture in the slate, Without Malice, was shot in December 1999 in Prince Albert National Park.

Towstego says ‘right now we are shopping scripts’ in search of the third title.

Murder Seen stars Nicole Eggert, Callum Keith Rennie and Timothy Bottoms.

*Trapped in the Net: MythQuest

The newly powerful tween demo is the target of the live-action, action-adventure series MythQuest, and appropriately, the producers of the series are aiming to make it a multimedia experience.

The show, aimed at kids aged eight to 17, is to be coupled with a website, a book publishing deal, and what producers are calling ‘an outreach program.’

The $22-million series (13 x 60) is a coproduction between Regina’s Minds Eye Pictures and VIF Productions of Germany, and will be produced in association with David Braun Productions of the u.s. Minds Eye International is the international distributor.

The series’ two heroes are brother and sister teens, Alex and wheelchair-bound Cleo, who have discovered a gateway into which their father, a celebrated archeologist, has disappeared. The series uses classic narrative structure and some elements of mythology as the two set out to follow him.

Integral to the MythQuest experience are the online and publishing components, both of which offer attentive consumers clues to ongoing mysteries. The website includes such brand extenders as a chat room, moderated games and a trading card game.

The first season of the series is to be complemented with two soft and two hardcover books, which will include the series’ stories, stills from the production, reference materials, games, and perhaps most enticingly, clues inserted in character dialogue and action that will enable sharp-eyed readers to enter contests.

The series, currently being shot in Regina, already has a Canadian broadcaster (Showcase) and an American broadcaster (pbs).

The ‘outreach program’ is to be piloted by PBS Seattle as soon as the show is broadcast (likely in fall 2001). Minds Eye’s Lanis Anthony says the outreach program will go into community centres and is about bringing the ideas of the series into the audience’s lives.

‘They’ll be conducting MythQuest interactions to get people talking about their family, their heritage. So there’s a link to the on-air presentation. It all works in tandem. If [the program] takes off there then we’ll pick the major American markets, then plant it in the major Canadian markets. Then as we sell the show worldwide, we’ll implement it via the broadcaster in worldwide locations; so it’s truly a partnership with the broadcaster, who has to take [the outreach program] up but can see it has an effect on their viewing audience.’

*Holiday cheers

Prairie producers looking for funding no doubt have heard of the $24-million Western Independent Producers Fund, part of the benefits package attached to CanWest Global’s purchase of wic assets. The fund’s Sandra Green (ex of Great North) promises there will be action by the end of this year.

‘The fund hasn’t been incorporated yet; we’re waiting to get our bylaws passed, but the initial members have been chosen. We’re hoping to have our guidelines published by the end of this month, but we’ve had a few hiccups. They will be published in December come hell or high water,’ says Green.

‘I believe our first deadline date [for applications] will be March 1, 2001, but that’s still subject to change. But we’re trying our hardest to ensure that money is going to be meaningful for spring production.’

Green says to qualify for funds applicants will probably have to have a broadcast licence. ‘The fund is a top-up fund, so we’ll be looking for the majority of financing to be confirmed prior to anyone coming here.’

Seventy percent of available funds will be earmarked for drama, with the proviso that children’s programming will be construed as drama ‘if the budget warrants it.’

Correction

the item on Jet Boy that ran in the Oct. 30 Prairie Scene contained some errors:

Bruce Harvey, president of Illusions Entertainment in Calgary, is executive producing the project and Nancy Laing is producing. Writer/director is David Schultz and young actor Bruce MacDonald is in the cast. *