Newfoundland and Nova Scotia stargazers get an eyeful this spring when Miramax brings The Shipping News to the East Coast.

Adapted from E. Annie Proulx’s award-winning novel of the same name, The Shipping News will shoot on location in the Trinity Bay area of Newfoundland and take advantage of studio space in Dartmouth, ns.

The film is a rarity – an American-made movie shot in Canada, taking place in Canada. It follows a newspaperman named Quoyle, who has been troubled by a series of events. His wife moved out on him, taking their two daughters with her. When his wife is killed in a car accident, Quoyle reclaims his daughters and moves to his ancestral home in a Newfoundland fishing town. There he takes a job writing the shipping news for a local newspaper and tries to comes to terms with his own personal troubles and those of his family.

The project had been in development for a long time and was once thought to be a vehicle for American actors John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. Meg Ryan and actor/director Billy Bob Thornton are names that were also attached to the project.

The Shipping News is now set to star two-time Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, Pay It Forward), Julianne Moore (Clarice in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Hannibal) and Cate Blanchette (The Gift, Elizabeth) as Quoyle’s unsavory spouse.

Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat) will direct, with Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Leslie Holleran, Diana Pokorny, Rob Cowan and Irwin Winkler producing.

According to Leo Furey, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, the producers fully intend to use a number of crew members from Newfoundland during their stay. He says the film heads into preproduction March 1, with production in Newfoundland slated to begin April 24.

Ann MacKenzie, ceo of the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, says The Shipping News will also take over the Tour Tech East soundstage for a time.

Marcil to shoot

At Shepherd Park

michelle Marcil’s Fredericton-based Dorenavant Productions and Calgary’s CHAOS, a film company are coproducing At Shepherd Park, a new feature film currently in preproduction in Moncton. Marcil and chaos’ Carolyn McMaster are producing.

Marcil, who has worked as a freelance producer in film and television since 1987, marks her feature debut with the film.

At Shepherd Park is the story of a dysfunctional family in a small town. Paige, the daughter, is the film’s main focus. She has seen her father through a drinking problem and some violent unpleasantness involving her brother. When the father invites the brother back into the household, Paige worries for her father’s safety and watches out for him, uncovering some well-kept family secrets along the way.

"Paige writes very well and has the support of a teacher. Through those writings she comes to terms with as much as she can figure of the violence and how to situate herself with the circumstances at home," explains Marcil.

The film’s script was written by chaos’ Robert Cuffley and Calgary-based wordsmith Jason Long. Cuffley will also direct.

"I would say it is going to be done in the style of Trainspotting," says Marcil. "It is going to be gritty and not in a conventional style."

The film will feature the acting talents of Nicholas Campbell (DaVinci’s Inquest), Katherine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) and Torri Higginson (The City).

Financing has come in from Telefilm Canada, New Brunswick Film, A-Channel Drama Fund, the CFCN Production Fund, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, tax credits, the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund, the National Screen Institute’s Features First program and presales to A-Channel in Calgary and TMN-The Movie Network. A distributor is still being sought.

The film’s budget is a touch under $1 million, which Marcil feels is too low for the film they want to make. She tips her hat to the many crew members she has worked with in the past for taking a pay cut to help make the film a reality.

The film will shoot over four weeks in Moncton, beginning March 4. Preproduction began Feb. 4.

First Works program

moves to Preston

ann MacKenzie, of the nsfdc, sees a busy few months ahead. Between The Shipping News, a trio of mows in various stages of production and preproduction for Fox and cbs, and local projects, "We’re going to be really busy right through until the end of the summer," she says.

All this is in addition to the nsfdc’s First Works program, an ongoing initiative with assistance from Human Resources Development Canada. With two successful First Works on the books for Sydney and Shelburne, MacKenzie says a third is underway in the Preston area of Nova Scotia.

"First Works is a youth initiative program, targeted at youths between 18 and 29 who are not in school and not working," says MacKenzie. "We pair them up with a filmmaker and leadership development facilitator for a two-month period."

The filmmaker for the Preston arm of the program is Sylvia Hamilton, known for her National Film Board documentary SPEAK IT! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia. The filmmakers/teachers offer the participants guidance in creating videos, which they must make entirely on their own over the course of the intensive eight-week program.

"They actually do everything from write the video, act in it, shoot it and edit it, and we screen those [projects] during the Atlantic Film Festival [Sept. 14-22]" says MacKenzie. "They are learning leadership, development skills and community interaction skills and things like that. So even if these youths learn that the film industry is not the career of their choice, at least they are learning and developing skills that will be transportable in other areas."

She says many of the young participants in the First Works program have gone back to school or started working in the film and tv industry.

"Some have even gotten scholarships to go to the Vancouver Film School based on their videos," says MacKenzie. "It’s been a really successful program."

Those enlisted in the Preston First Works will be working out of the Tour Tech East soundstages in Dartmouth. And if you’ve been paying attention so far, you’ll have already realized the significance of this.

"The Shipping News is shooting at the same time," says MacKenzie. "These youths are going to get to interact on a day-to-day basis with a big film crew and they’ll see Kevin Spacey, so it is going to be a really good perk for them."

MacKenzie says Preston represents the third of five towns First Works plans to hit. Preliminary plans are in the works for the program to travel to the Antigonish and Kentville areas of Nova Scotia.

Correction

director Sean Scott, writer Edward Kay and Steven Comeau are the cocreators of the Collideascope-produced interstitials/television special Ollie’s Under the Bed Adventures. *