‘Killers killed

Toronto: David Cronenberg has shelved his Painkillers feature, saying he’s lost interest in the script, and will instead go forward with the recently announced thriller London Fields, for Montreal-based Muse Productions and the U.K.’s Metro Tartan, and A History of Violence, an adaptation of the DC Comics book for New Line Cinema.

Violence is expected to shoot first and is penciled in for release in 2005. Cronenberg will then shoot Fields in the U.K., working with an adaptation of the Martin Amis novel by Roberta Hanley (The Virgin Suicides). Sean Davidson

Family Feud

Montreal: Cirrus Communications is launching its feature film division with C.R.A.Z.Y., a French-language family drama starring Quebec icon Michel Cote. The 38-day shoot started on April 26, mostly in Montreal, plus a week in Morocco, which will sub for Jerusalem.

‘[Writer/director] Jean-Marc Vallee started working on C.R.A.Z.Y. eight years ago and Michel Cote has been on board for five years, giving his encouragement and support. They worked together in Liste Noire, which was incredibly successful,’ says producer Pierre Even of Montreal’s Cirrus, who coproduced C.R.A.Z.Y. with Vallee (Crazy Films).

C.R.A.Z.Y. is inspired by the life of Vallee’s cowriter on the project, Francois Boulay. The film follows a boy named Zachary who struggles to earn his father’s approval in a house of five brothers. Each letter of the film’s title stands for the first letter of a brother’s name. Cote (Le Tunnel) plays the father, who initially respects only toughness in his sons. Over time, Zachary challenges his relationship with his father by deviating from the normal family dynamic.

‘It’s not a period film. It’s a three-period film,’ says Even (Just for Laughs), who worked on the project with executive producers Richard Speer (Quebec-Montreal) and Jacques Blain (La Vie, la vie) of Cirrus. ‘We focused on 1966, 1975 and 1980, with a prologue and conclusion set today. Our art director, Patrice Vermette, had to work with small details because the family’s house isn’t in the city, where it’s easier to reveal the decade – with more store signs and street life.’

C.R.A.Z.Y.’s financial participants include Telefilm Canada, SODEC, TVA Films, Super Ecran, the Canadian Film Fund and The Harold Greenberg Fund. TVA Films plans to release the film late next spring. Joanne Latimer

Sidekicked up a notch

Toronto: The oh-so-low-budget feature Sidekick got a surprise shot in the arm last month when Daniel Baldwin signed up for a part, playing against type as a geeky loner in the superspoof from Toronto’s Victory Man Productions. And it’s a principal part, not a cameo, insists coproducer Tom Mudd, who has been shooting the $250,000 pic around town since March with director Blake Van de Graaf. Baldwin was already in town at that time for Anonymous Rex, a pilot shot here by Fox Studios for the Sci-Fi Channel. Anonymous Rex stars Sam Trammell, with appearances by Faye Dunaway and Isaac Hayes. Sean Davidson