Fresh from the success of her multiple-Genie-nominated Bollywood/Hollywood, Toronto-based filmmaker Deepa Mehta rolled cameras earlier this month on a big-screen version of Carol Shields’ bestseller The Republic of Love – one of several literary adaptations in the works for Triptych Media. It’s the story of Tom, a late-night radio talk show host played by the ubiquitous Bruce Greenwood (13 Days, Ararat, Below), and his unlikely pairing with incurable romantic Fay, played by British import Emilia Fox (The Pianist, David Copperfield). Claire Bloom, Jackie Burroughs, Gary Farmer and Fox’s real-life father, Edward Fox, also star.

The Canada/U.K. coproduction, made with London-based Dan Films under the banner of The Film Consortium, will be distributed in Canada by Seville Pictures and across the pond by Helkon SK. It’s expected to cost $5 million and drew funds from Telefilm Canada, the CTF, The Harold Greenberg Fund, The Movie Network, Super Ecran and Movie Central. Anna Stratton (The Hanging Garden) of Triptych and Julie Baines (The Cat’s Meow) of Dan Films produce, and shooting runs in Toronto until late December. A release is planned for next winter.

Meanwhile, producer and Triptych principal Robin Cass has Lee MacDougall reworking his smash play High Life for the big screen, and is currently shopping for a director with executive producer Fred Fuchs. Production starts sometime in 2003 with a budget of $8-million to $10-million.

Fuchs – best known for his work with Francis Ford Coppola on such films as Dracula and The Godfather Part 3 – recently relocated with his family from the U.S. to Toronto.

The Toronto company also has screenwriter John Frizzell (Dance Me Outside, Twitch City) and author Susan Swan reworking her novel The Biggest Modern Woman of the World for the big screen, while producer and Triptych principal Louise Garfield shops for a director. She hopes to go to camera sometime in ’03 with a $20-million budget and will follow that with Jefferson Lewis’ adapation of Emotional Arithmetic, by Governor General’s Award-winner Matt Cohen, to be coproduced with Quebec’s BBR Productions.

It takes a Global Village

Director Steve Deme is again racking up the frequent flyer miles – and is currently continent hopping from Latin America to Asia to Africa for a second 13 x 30 season of The Global Villagers. The doc series, which first aired on Vision TV in fall 2001 and is slated to return in ’03, recounts the humanitarian work done by Canadians in various developing countries. It is the flagship project of Villagers Media Productions, the Toronto prodco run by Deme and wife Dawn, who also writes and executive produces.

‘We believe there’s something very special about how Canadians approach the rest of the world,’ says Dawn Deme.

The budget is a lean $40,000 per ep, and is backed by CIDA, the Vision licence fee and the CTF LFP. ‘Like a lot of artists, we’re not necessarily the best business people in the world,’ says Deme, ‘but a lack of money isn’t going to stop us.’ Roughly half of VMP’s revenue comes from corporate videos, and the company works closely with some 20 aid organizations – Oxfam, the International Development and Relief Foundation, et al – to turn out the series.

Villagers Media has also just finished Olive Dickason’s First Nations, a TV one-hour detailing the life and work of the 82-year-old Aboriginal historian, and will soon deliver to APTN for airing in early 2003. Subsequent broadcasts will follow on Vision, W Network, BC Knowledge and SCN.

The $160,000 project was floated in part by its many licence fees, federal and provincial tax credits and cash from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage. Deme hopes to turn out another four one-hours about Dickason’s renowned books, which include The Myth of the Savage and Canada’s First Nations, starting in ’03. It is hoped that a Dickason franchise will allow the company to break into the international market. ‘Her books are encyclopedic,’ says Deme. ‘We could do a 13-part series just on treaties.’

Phunkee town

The increasingly cozy relationship between video games and kids shows will get cozier still with Phunkee Zee, a new 13 x 30 series now underway for YTV. The $6.6-million project – produced by Toronto’s Savi Media, The Nightingale Company and Megafun Productions of Montreal – combines live action and 3D game-esque animation.

The series follows the exploits of an intergalactic wayfarer (Barbara Mamabolo) and her reptilian sidekick as they square off against evil aliens on a battlefield that just happens to resemble a 3D gaming environment. Jamie Johnston (The Women of Camelot) and Alex Hood (In a Heartbeat) also star.

Visual effects director Dean Lewis (Bismarck) and Toronto animation house Elliot Digital will turn out the 3D footage, using the Jupiter System by U.S.-based LithTech. Alexandra Raffe (Flower & Garnet), Debbie Nightingale (Vid Kids), Paul Cadieux (Brain Bounce), Robert Carney (Cold Squad) and Victoria Woods (Breaker High) produce. Phunkee Zee shoots until late December and airs next fall. Filmoption International is handling world distribution.

Hockey night in Laval

An apparent flood of hockey projects – see Ice and Hockey Nomad last issue – continues this month with news of Les Chiefs!, a $100,000 documentary from theatre-turned-film company East Hill Productions about life in the Quebec Semi-Pro Hockey League.

First-time feature director and editor Jason Gileno is now in post, following 18 months of shooting with bad-ass minor leaguers Les Chiefs de Laval and hopes to have a 90-minute cut in theatres by May 2003. Producer David Bajurny is in talks with distributors and potential broadcasters.

Barjuny admits the film resembles the popular Les Boys sports comedies. ‘But these are the real guys, the real Les Boys,’ he says, ‘we certainly didn’t do it deliberately.’

Gileno will then resume work on Walkerton: Returning Home, again with Bajurny producing. The TV one-hour, privately funded at $100,000, looks at how the small Ontario town has recovered since seven were killed and thousands sickened by E. coli-contaminated water in 2000. Gileno shot most of the doc over the past two years and will edit in early ’03 while East Hill seeks out a broadcaster.