In an effort to provide Playback readers with increasingly relevant and diverse coverage of the Canadian production community, we have combined the Atlantic and Prairie Scenes, penned by our esteemed writer Dustin Dinoff, to appear every third issue starting in this one.

With reduced column frequency, regional production information will be integrated into the main news section, giving the body of the paper a more balanced outlook.

We look forward to serving the industry better and better each day…

ATLANTIC

Halifax’s imX communications is forging ahead on its digital feature film series seats 3a & 3c, with principal photography now completed on Thom Fitzgerald’s The Wild Dogs, number two in the low-budget five-pack.

Wild Dogs follows Dragonwheel, written and directed by Tricia Fish, which wrapped earlier this year as the first installment in the seats series.

Coproduced with Axiom Films of the U.K., each film in the series is premised on the chance meeting of two people on an airplane and the profound impact it has on their lives.

Wild Dogs, written and directed by Fitzgerald, is about a photographer for an online porn site (portrayed by Fitzgerald) who reluctantly travels to Eastern Europe in search of new talent. On the flight overseas, he meets a diplomat (David Heyman) who helps him see the world in a new way.

‘They become fast friends, and through the diplomat and his family, the photographer comes into contact with the real beauty and the real strength in post-Communist Romania, which is oftentimes the gypsy children and the beggars,’ says Shayla Howell, seats’ production coordinator. ‘He turns his camera on them and finds himself less focused on finding porn. He goes looking for a certain kind of porn and he finds the real pornography, which is the way some people are forced to live.’

Rachel Blanchard (Sugar and Spice) and Alberta Watson (Deeply, Tart) also star.

The film, produced by Ann Bernier, was shot last month on location in Romania and at imX’s airplane set in Halifax.

Budgeted at $750,000, funding for the film came from Telefilm Canada, the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, tax credits and prebuys from ChumCity and The Movie Network.

Howell says more seats should be filled beginning in November when production on Past Perfect gets underway in Halifax. Although details are still sketchy, the project is being written and directed by Daniel MacIvor, with Camelia Frieberg producing.

‘We are really excited about this one,’ says Howell. ‘The script is just fantastic.’

Sexton, House tackle Ocean Ranger MOW

St. John’s-based Dark Flowers Productions, a partnership between producer Mary Sexton and writer/director Rosemary House, is continuing development on Atlantic Blue, an MOW for CTV about the sinking of the Ocean Ranger oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland 20 years ago come February. The entire crew of 84 died in the disaster.

Sexton and House will dramatize the events surrounding the sinking of the rig through fictional characters, which are currently being fleshed out in the latest draft of House’s script.

‘It was a huge tragedy and a huge mess,’ says House. ‘It should never have happened. There was a whole bunch of errors, both mechanical and manmade. The men died because there were numerous safety flaws. Lifeboats were not put together, there weren’t any survival suits. Basically, they all died of hypothermia in the water. They had rescue people there, but the men were in the water and couldn’t lift their arms to grab hold of the life rafts.

‘It was a tragedy, but it is a huge part of [Newfoundland] as well.’

The MOW is budgeted at $3.2 million, with CTV and Telefilm in for development funding. If all the puzzle pieces fall into place, House and Sexton hope to begin production in fall 2002.

In the meantime, Dark Flowers is assisting Toronto’s CineNova Productions on a documentary about the sinking of the Ocean Ranger. Sexton is serving as production/location manager (an unofficial title), while House is helping with the casting and script consultation.

The doc went into production in late August and will air on CTV.

MacDonald and Topsail storm Rideau Hall

Halifax’s Topsail Entertainment recently wrapped principal photography in Halifax on Rideau Hall, a one-hour comedy special (and series hopeful) for CBC, starring comic Bette MacDonald of The Bette Show, another Topsail production for CBC.

Rideau Hall is about a very right-wing Canadian prime minister (Barry Flatman), who Morris says has elements of former PM Brian Mulroney and Alliance leader Stockwell Day. The PM wants to sever Canada’s ties with the British monarchy and goes in search of the worst possible candidate to fill the post of governor general and comes up with former disco queen Regina Gallant (MacDonald). To his dismay, Gallant is surprisingly good in her new job.

‘We had a lot of fun working with Bette [on The Bette Show] and we all wanted to work together again,’ says Topsail producer Greg Morris. ‘On stage, her best and most popular characters are always characters that possess some kind of control and power, and they always seem to manipulate that a little. This character certainly falls into that category, so it plays to her strengths as a performer.’

Rideau Hall also features Fiona Reed, Joe Dinicol, Rejean Cournoyer and Jonathan Torrens. Alex Ganetakos wrote the script and Stephen Reynolds directed. Morris is producing, with Mike Volpe and Brookes Diamond exec producing. Budgeted at $860,000, Rideau Hall received funding from the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, the CTF and CBC.

Morris says the special is scheduled to air around Christmas and is hopeful CBC will spin it out into a 13 half-hour series.

PRAIRIE

Tom Stone goes to camera

Tom Stone, a new one-hour primetime drama series for CBC, began shooting Sept. 6 in Calgary. It is being produced under the banner Tom Stone Productions, a new company headed up by the series’ executive producers Tom Cox, Doug MacLeod, Jordy Randall and series creator/writer Andrew Wreggit (Black Harbour, North of 60), who is also exec producing.

Tom Stone is about an ex-cop/oil-rig worker/con artist, who takes on some undercover assignments for RCMP Corporal Marina Di Luzio (Janet Kidder).

‘[Tom Stone] is kind of a compilation of a lot of guys I know and have met and who been around forever out here in Alberta,’ says Wreggit. ‘There is a sense of a very independent kind of guy who doesn’t necessarily play by the rules but has a really deeply held sense of justice and what is right. That kind of character is one I’ve always wanted to see in a contemporary series and hadn’t seen before.’

Stone is played by Chris William Martin. Stuart Margolin also appears in the series and is directing the two-hour premiere episode, slated to air Feb. 18, 2002 on CBC.

The 13 episodes are budgeted at $935,000 each, with funding from the CTF Equity Investment and Licence Fee Programs, the CFCN Production Fund, the CanWest Western Independent Production Fund, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Film Development Program and federal tax credits. Wreggit says although the series is very location-driven, the producers are making it work within the budget they have.

For Wreggit, known primarily as a writer, Tom Stone offers a number of new challenges.

‘This is a whole new thing for me,’ he admits. ‘This is the first series that I’ve created and the first time I’ve been an executive producer on a series. I’m learning stuff and trying to do new things. Luckily, I have partners with a lot of experience and we can divide up a lot of the work and tasks so that all of our skills are being used in the best way possible.’

Erbach horrifies through puberty

Winnipeg’s Critical Madness Productions has partnered with Full Stop Films in Toronto to coproduce Nature of Nicholas, a first feature from Winnipeg writer/director Jeff Erbach.

Critical Madness producer Jeff Peeler describes the project as a ‘non-traditional coming-of-age story.’

‘It’s about two 12-year-old boys and their awkward and terrifying entry into puberty and journey into adolescence. It has elements of horror, and the whole terrifying nature of adolescence is told through metaphor and from the kids’ point of view. It is not a kids movie, just told from their point of view.’

Peeler says older filmgoers will probably relate to the story and experiences of the characters, and may recall their own horrifying experiences growing up.

‘Everything is so dramatic, life-threatening and hypersensitive when you are 12 years old, and that is what the film tries to capture visually,’ he says. ‘It isn’t a conventional story. On the surface Nature of Nicholas is a traditional story, but it certainly doesn’t have a conventional look or story.’

The film wrapped shooting Sept. 2 on a $900,000 budget, financed by Telefilm and Manitoba Film and Sound, with broadcast licences from Showcase and The Movie Network.

Leading the cast are Jeff Sutton, David Turnball, Ardith Boxall and Tom McCamus, the lone non-Manitoban in the cast (although born in Winnipeg), who plays Nicholas’ dead father.

Peeler says the film should be ready for delivery in January and he is currently searching for a distributor.

Bloodsucking and dancing with Maddin in the Peg

Production is underway in Winnipeg on the film version of a ballet based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Directed by Guy Maddin, Dracula – Pages From a Virgin’s Diary is performed on film for the CBC by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet under choreographer Mark Godden.

Produced by Vonnie Von Helmolt, the $1.6-million TV movie wrapped 20 days of shooting Sept. 16.

Von Helmolt says after seeing the original stage production of the ballet, she knew she could make it work on the small screen.

‘I went to see the ballet because there was a lot of buzz around town about Dracula and how gorgeous it was,’ she says. ‘When I saw it I realized it would probably translate very well to film and television. I spoke to Mark Godden about my approach to it, because I didn’t want to shoot it the way most ballets for TV are shot.’

Von Helmolt decided a piece like Dracula should be incredibly visual and introduced Godden to the work of director Maddin.

‘[Godden] said Maddin’s work has exactly the kind of gothic, rich feeling that he was after in the ballet,’ she says, adding Maddin’s style and visual trickery will be well represented in the film.

‘We are shooting it in black and white and we are going to tint parts of it red, like Dracula’s cape and eyes.’

Bravo! and CBC participated in development. CBC took particular interest, she says, because it had just launched its Opening Night performing arts series and Dracula was a natural fit.

‘The CBC was able to license the entire project without any second windows,’ says Von Helmolt. ‘I think luck is opportunity meeting preparation, so we were very lucky with this project.’

Funding for the project also comes from Telefilm, Manitoba Film and Sound Corporation, CTF, CanWest Western Independent Production Fund and provincial and federal tax credits. Von Helmolt says delivery of Dracula is slated for late January 2002, and it should air some time in early spring. She is also hoping for an encore showing on Halloween 2002.

Hungry Girls set The Big Table

Edmonton’ Hungry Girls Films is in post on its 10-minute film The Big Table, which shot late summer in Edmonton.

Produced by Larissa Banting and written and directed by Alexandra Zarowny, the $60,000 short is about an eight-year-old boy who decides he will know longer suffer the indignities of eating at the ‘kids table’ when visiting his grandmother’s house. He is asked to get a bag of peas from the scary basement as a right of passage to The Big Table.

The film is a 2001 National Screen Institute Drama Prize winner, through which it received funding from Telefilm. Additional assistance came from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the National Film Board. Shot in four days, Banting says she is currently looking into broadcasting and distribution options for the film.

The Big Table will premier at the 2002 Local Heroes Film Festival in Winnipeg, Feb. 23 to March 2, 2002.