Cannes, France: The future of Montreal-based Cinar is as changeable as Riviera weather in April, but the president of Cinar Europe, David Ferguson, says production is chugging full steam ahead.

Ferguson highlighted four, 90-minute movies-for-television/video at MIP. Coproduced by Feature Films For Families of Salt Lake City, UT, titles include: Return To The Secret Garden; Both Sides of the Law, about two 12-year-old boys who follow divergent paths and wonder if their friendship will survive; The Penny Promise, which explores the thesis that ‘an honest heart is more valuable than any amount of money;’ and Jumping for Joy, about ‘a girl who wants to play basketball with the boys.’

The MultiMedia Group of Canada announced its new coprod Only Joking, a follow-up to the highly successful Just Kidding. Only Joking, which features gags filmed by a hidden camera, is comprised of 464 x 90-second clips, which can be licensed as stand-alones or packaged as 39 x 30 minutes. Coproduced by Belgium’s Keynews Television, the half-hour series will see a spring/summer launch on Fox, which bought it after an exec saw some in-flight interstitials. OJ is airing on France 2 and RTL Germany, and several European territories bought it.

The coproducers signed a development deal with Pearson to do a new primetime format series, Careful, Someone’s Watching You, to be packaged as 13 x 90 or 13 x 60. In this one, the camera follows ‘people who never know they’re being filmed and never see the tapes until they’re in the studios,’ says Boris Portnoy, creator and producer of the gag segments. Since Portnoy has cracked the U.S. market, MultiMedia says comedy spinoff possibilities are endless.

Toronto’s Portfolio Entertainment may find endless ops for Klootz, 120 x 1:20, a no-dialogue series. Maria Cordoni, VP of distribution, says Family Channel in Canada bought English-Canadian rights to this CGI comedy series about a pair of pears produced by Klik Animation, for launch this month. Australia’s multichannel pay service Foxtel will launch the fruit on Fox Kids Australia this spring.

Other Portfolio sales include Know Limits IV (13 x 30) to U.K.-based Extreme Sports Channel for pan-Europe. Extreme has also bought 43 x 30 of Wilderness Adventure Guide for Mid-East territories.

Short films were also selling for the NFB. My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts will air on NHK Japan this month on National Children’s Day. YLE Finland bought Grandmother, plus The Boy and the Snow Goose and Ludovic – A Crocodile in My Garden. Dutch broadcaster VPRO will please parents with Christopher Please Clean Up Your Room and The Magic of Anansi. A title from Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back), Strange Invaders, went to Canal+.

Israeli television bought a package of docs, while TV Escola and TV MultiRio, edu-casters in Brazil, bought bought packs of animation and docs.

David Devine of Devine Entertainment, Toronto, says his company is heading toward its first feature. He’s optioned The Cowboy and His Elephant, a Malcolm McFarland book with ‘an unusual take on man and beast redeeming each other,’ set in Colorado. Budgeted at $9 million, Devine is talking to Columbia TriStar and ‘looking for partners.’

An untitled, $4-million feature-in-development would tell the story of a pair of 10-year-olds who meet Hans Christian Andersen and ‘enter his imagination’ through the device of his paper cutouts. Devine, with Dreamcatcher Productions of L.A., is also doing a US$4.8-million TV movie The Greatest, based on the Kenny Rogers song, about a small-town family that sees two of its boys make it to the Little League World Series. He hasn’t confirmed a broadcaster, but expects the film to air in August if there’s no actors’ strike.

Cargo Releasing of New York had several international sales of the Weird series of programs from Vancouver’s Yaletown Entertainment. Weird Wheels and Weird Homes, both 39 x 30, sold to Reality TV, a cabler beaming into France, Germany and much of the Eastern bloc territories. Dave Piperni of Cargo also noted sales of both series to Singapore, Finland, China and the U.K. *