End of the Line for Minds Eye

Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures is in development on a feature film called End of the Soo Line from writer William Boyle (Now & Forever). The film is set during the prohibition era when much of the bootleg alcohol sold in the U.S. was made in southern Saskatchewan and transported on the Soo rail line to Chicago.

The story is about a trip taken by legendary mobster Al Capone to Saskatchewan to escape the heat in Chicago.

Minds Eye CEO Kevin DeWalt will executive produce.

According to VP development Josh Miller, the development budget for the film is $50,000, with funding from Corus Entertainment, The Harold Greenberg Fund, SaskFilm and Shaw. He says production is slated to begin in the fall. Cast has not yet been confirmed.

At Minds Eye’s Alberta office, production continues until March on Great Cemeteries of the World, a 26-part, half-hour factual series for airing on Global’s Prime. Global’s diginet The Mystery Channel has already begun to air episodes. Great Cemeteries is a coproduction with Souleado Entertainment of Edmonton.

Miller, who coproduces the program with Souleado president Connie Edwards (Punchbuggy), says Great Cemeteries is a combination travel and biography show. It takes viewers all over the world to see some of the most beautiful and historical graveyards, and also profiles a handful of the residents found in each.

The series is budgeted at roughly $1.6 million. DeWalt is executive producer and Trevor Grant (The Great Canadian Food Show) directs.

Episodes will feature cemeteries in London, Paris, Vienna, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Ireland and other locales.

Minds Eye International is distributing.

Minds Eye is currently posting season three of Mentors as it develops season four, and is also in development on season two of Myth Quest. The first season of 2030CE, produced by Minds Eye Pictures and Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures and coproduced by Toronto companies Angela Bruce Productions and Yan Moore Productions, will begin airing on YTV Feb. 6. The second season is slated to begin shooting in Manitoba this summer.

A defining project

A trio of Calgary-based filmmakers is teaming up to produce their first feature film under the banner Enrique Poe Productions. The project, defining edward, is about an artist for a porn mag who ends up with amnesia and is helped by a stranger to rediscover who he is. Former AD Susan Bristow is producing with the film’s writer/director and former grip Corey Lee.

The self-financed, low-budget film is being shot on 24p HD by DOP Robin Loewen (the third member of the defining team) and stars Joely Collins (Cold Squad) and Joel McNichol (Stardom).

Production wrapped Jan. 29 in Calgary after a rigorous 18-day shoot. Lee and Bristow hope to enlist a funding agency for financial assistance in post.

Bristow says they plan to have the film completed in time to submit to the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival.

Letting Prairie Dogs lie

ST. Albert, AB-based Prairie Dog Productions is gearing up to produce Little White Lies, a feaure-length film to be produced by Prairie Dog principal Ron E. Scott (Rubberman).

Little White Lies was written by Scott and Ric Beairsto (Madison). It is about the formation of Jasper National Park and the issues between the developers and the aboriginal people who inhabited the area at the time.

The project has been in development for six years and is entering the final draft stage. It has been funded thus far by CTV, Telefilm Canada and APTN. No director has been named yet, but Scott is optimistic production will get underway in late summer/early fall. Scott says ideally he would like to see the project produced as an MOW, but it may very well go as a theatrical release.