Manitoba appears to be riding a winning wave of late. In addition to scoring the Jennifer Lopez/Richard Gere film Shall We Dance? (in the wake of the film’s producers bailing on Toronto due to SARS anxiety), Carole Vivier, CEO of Manitoba Film & Sound, has announced a new media fund for the province and a new base budget of $1 million per year to help finance indigenous film and recording projects.

‘It’s a huge boost to the independent sector here,’ says Vivier. ‘The growth of our industry has been quite phenomenal and the pressure on our funding has grown with that, so this injection of new money into our programs will allow us to fund more of the projects we would like to be funding.’

Vivier is equally excited about the new MFS Interactive Media Fund Program. The Government of Manitoba has allocated $900,000 over three years to assist the province’s new media content producers in the production and marketing of new media projects, as well as to stimulate growth of the sector.

As for J-Lo and the sexiest Buddhist alive, they are scheduled to shoot Shall We Dance? for Miramax with director Peter Chelsom June 23 to Aug. 31. Vivier says Manitoba’s three crews are happily ‘maxed out,’ and because of Dance? and other productions scheduled to shoot over the summer, the Manitoba production infrastructure has been forced into a growth period.

‘The level of production we’ve had here has allowed us to continue the training within the training programs,’ says Vivier. ‘I’m hoping with the level of production we are seeing lining up now and through the summer, by the end of it we’ll have our fourth crew done and we can start building our fifth crew. Manitoba is kind of booming and we’re very excited.’

Busy spring in Saskatchewan

Three feature films, The Lost Angel, I Accuse and The Pedestrian, recently wrapped production in Saskatchewan, continuing the momentum of the province as a viable production centre for guest and local production.

In April, all three films were shooting simultaneously for a time and all three are currently in various stages of post-production.

The Lost Angel, a US$3.5-million coproduction from Regina’s 4 Square Productions, L.A.-based ACME Pictures and Ontario’s Elio Pictures, was written and directed by Dimitri Logothetis (Cheyenne). The film is a thriller about a detective on the trail of a serial killer while battling demons within herself.

Principal photography took place at the Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios in Regina (as well as various locations around town). The film stars Alison Eastwood (Poolhall Junkies) and John Rhys Davies (The Lord of the Rings trilogy).

Cooper Rock Pictures’ low-budget The Pedestrian utilized a number of Regina locations and shot throughout Moose Jaw as well. Written and directed by Trevor Cunningham (Blueberry), the cleverly titled Pedestrian is about a guy with a foot fetish who finds the set of dogs he’s been barking for at the end of the legs of a gal named Cynthia.

Lori Kuffner is producing on behalf of Regina-based Cooper Rock, with Moose Jaw-based indie producer Doug Patterson coproducing and Stephen Onda executive producing. It stars Gordon Currie and locals Andrea Menard and Wendy Anderson.

Finally, I Accuse from director/producer John Ketcham (The Hurricane) also recently wrapped, under the banner of Rampage Entertainment, Vancouver. The film is based on the true story of a Saskatchewan woman on a quest for justice after an ‘encounter’ with a small-town doctor.

Ketcham is producing with Gavin Wilding and Mark Reid, with CineTel’s Lisa Hansen executive producing. The film was written by Charles Wilkinson and Matt DeJong. It stars Estella Warren (Driven) and John Hannah (The Mummy).

Snaps wraps

Another big shoot to wrap recently in the Prairies is the prequel to Ginger Snaps, which shot for 30 days in Alberta, finishing May 9. The film is now being posted at Joe Media Group in Calgary.

What may separate this Ginger Snaps from its two predecessors and mark it as a growing franchise are the names on the cast list. In addition to the return of Emily Perkins and Katherine Isabelle, the prequel features Canadian all-stars Hugh Dillon (Hard Core Logo), Nathaniel Arcand (Skins) and JR Bourne (Thir13en Ghosts) as well as Genie winners David La Haye (Un crabe dans la tete), Tom McCamus (Century Hotel) and Brendan Fletcher (Turning Paige).

Ginger Snaps: The Prequel is directed by Grant Harvey and is an Alberta/Ontario coproduction between Toronto’s 49th Parallel and Calgary’s Combustion Inc.

The $6-million film, written by Stephen Massicotte and Christina Ray, takes place in 1815 as a trading company outpost is busily fending off four-legged, moon-howling predators.

Distribution of the Ginger Snaps films is being handled by Seville Pictures in Canada, with Lions Gate Films handling international. The prequel is scheduled for delivery this fall, with no firm release date set.

CED launches film commish

Calgary Economic Development has launched the Calgary Film Commission, headed by inaugural film commissioner Beth Thompson. According to CED director of industry development Michael Brown, film is a multimillion-dollar industry in Alberta, Calgary specifically. The commission will help to ensure continued growth of the city as a film destination through aggressive marketing and will act as the central point of contact for visiting and local producers.

The commission will also work with other branches of city government to ensure that Calgary is seen as an attractive city to shoot in.

‘Historically, film commissions have been sort of one-offs, set off by themselves with their own budget and really none of the other economic development agencies would work with them,’ says Brown. ‘We are saying to someone like myself, who works for Calgary Economic Development, there is a component of your time that’s going to go into the film and development side.’

The commission is partnering with groups like Tourism Calgary, which will work on promoting Calgary as a film site in addition to its unrelated destination marketing duties. It will also look to the city to facilitate the permitting process.

The film commission’s early focus will be on partnering visiting companies with local prodcos and keeping productions in Calgary after the exteriors are shot, which is what outside producers have traditionally found so attractive about the city.

‘When people come in and shoot their films they don’t necessarily know there are studio opportunities in Calgary,’ says Brown. ‘So if there is a production company coming in and shooting all of the exteriors here and the interiors in L.A. or somewhere else, we will encourage them to do it all here. Those are opportunities for us, and if you’re just focusing on marketing you’re going to miss them.’