Montreal: Production veteran Kimberley Berlin, entertainment lawyer Charlene Paling and four other women have opened Wishmaker Films, a new production house with established U.S. service relationships and a promising Canadian development slate. Berlin is the new company’s CEO and Paling is president.

Wishmaker is actively pursuing service discussions with several U.S. companies including Hearst Entertainment, for an MOW series budgeted in the $3-million range, Regent Entertainment (Gods and Monsters), which has access to German media (film) fund money, Saban Entertainment, Fox Family Channel and Brainstorm Media.

On the Canadian front, Berlin and Paling have secured a limited option to package and develop Lawrence Gough’s quirky 12-book Willows & Parker Canadian mystery series. The producers recently flew to Vancouver to meet Gough, who has expressed a definite interest in writing the screenplays, says Berlin.

Berlin, a voracious reader of crime fiction, is also in talks with a best-selling U.S. crime novelist.

Currently, Wishmaker, Brainstorm’s Meyer Shwarzstein and Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. are in financing on Mask of Night, a sci-fi story tinged with horror elements. Berlin hopes to start filming in Montreal on the US$2.4-million shoot before year’s end.

In addition to Berlin and Paling, Wishmaker is made up of VP production Francesca Visconti and VP business affairs Irene Carter, both former Blackwatch staffers, controller Lise Chapdelaine and creative director Chelsea McIsaac.

All of Wishmaker’s staff have shares in the house, along with several key investors including Walter Klymkiw and Francois Garcia.

‘It became apparent – and I’ve been in production 18 years – that the more you do the more you learn what not to do, and we’ve come together knowing what not to do,’ says Berlin.

Berlin produced four MOWs for Blackwatch Productions in ’99 and 2000: Life in the Balance, starring Bo Derek and Bruce Boxleitner, sold to Lifetime Network and Court TV in the U.S.; Nowhere in Sight, starring Helene Slater and Andrew McCarthy, sold all rights to Blockbuster; Artificial Lies, starring Jack Wagner and Stuart Bick, sold to Lifetime and USA Network; and Dead Silent, starring Rob Lowe also sold to Lifetime and USA. Brainstorm’s Shwarzstein brokered the U.S. sales and Saban International has foreign rights.

Berlin, former president of Blackwatch Productions, has worked on more than two dozen productions since 1986, primarily as a 1st AD in Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and Europe.

Paling is a lawyer who has worked with CAVCO as head of business and legal affairs. She spent the past two years as VP business and legal affairs with Blackwatch Communications and has extensive experience in financing, distribution, international coproductions and Canadian incentives, including tax credits.

Wishmaker offers a wide range of services in the areas of production, legal and business, including title reviews and Canadian incentive qualification analysis and financial.