Cold War redux

Montreal: Occupying an old NATO airbase in St. Hubert, QC, the cast and crew of Guy X are in the middle of a $10-million U.K./Canada/Iceland coproduction. The 34-day shoot started on April 26, with two weeks of exteriors in Iceland.

‘At the time, we didn’t know it’s always windy in Iceland – always,’ muses Allan Joli-Coeur, executive producer at Montreal’s Wizz Films. Joli-Coeur is coproducing the project with Sam Taylor and Mike Downey from Films and Music Entertainment (U.K.), Michael Lionello Cowan and Jason Piette from Spice Factory (U.K.) and Anna Maria Karlsdottir from Ex ehf (Iceland). ‘The wind creates specific challenges for sound and everything else.’ Fortunately, though, much of the production shot indoors or on an airbase in St. Hubert, he says.

Guy X is based on a book by John Griesemer called No One Thinks of Greenland. John Paul Chapple and Steve Attridge wrote the screenplay for Films and Music, with Saul Metzstein (Late Night Shopping) directing. Jason Biggs stars as Rudy, an American soldier dumped at a forgotten military base in the Arctic in the mid-’80s. There, he discovers a group of disabled American soldiers who had been secretly imprisoned years earlier following a series of maverick raids in Vietnam. One such soldier, Guy X (Michael Ironside, Maximum Velocity), asks Rudy to spread the news of their imprisonment before the Pentagon destroys the base. Natasha McElhone (Solaris) plays Rudy’s love interest, who happens to be the base commander’s (Jeremy Northam, The Statement) girlfriend.

‘It’s part comedy – think M*A*S*H – and part post-Cold War drama,’ says Joli-Coeur, who secured financing with the U.K.’s Movision Entertainment, The Film Consortium and Invicta Capital, as wells as Spice Factory, the Icelandic Film Center, Telefilm Canada and SODEC. Seville Pictures is the Canadian distributor, while Scanbox is distributing in Scandinavia and Tarton is handling the U.K. Joanne Latimer

Thrilling coastline

Vancouver: Desolation Sound, despite its name, is one of the most beautiful destinations on the West Coast. Now, it’s the inspiration for a psychological thriller many years in the making.

The feature Desolation Sound – starring Helene Joy (An American in Canada), Jennifer Beals (Flashdance), Ed Begley, Jr. (Kingdom Hospital), Ian Tracey (Da Vinci’s Inquest) and Lothaire Bluteau (Le Confessional) – tells the story of two best friends, one’s murder and possession against the backdrop of B.C.’s photogenic Sunshine Coast (which is actually south of Desolation Sound).

Producer Mary Anne Waterhouse, who just finished the mini Kingdom Hospital, says the production has cash of about $1.5 million (as one of the last B.C. films to enjoy the old Feature Film Fund from British Columbia Film) and deferrals of about $1 million from patient local suppliers. Actress Glynis Davies (Lift) wrote the script directed by Scott Weber (Lift). Production runs May 24 to June 18.

Equinoxe Films is handling Canadian distribution, and new West Coast foreign sales agent Thunderbird Films, along with LA affiliate Program Partners, will handle international sales. Thunderbird is fronted by former Peace Arch Entertainment executive Tim Gamble and Michael Shepard, formerly of Muse Entertainment, who put up some financing and act as executive producers. Ian Edwards

Fung Affair

Vancouver: Vancouver-based Chinese broadcast magnate Thomas Fung, who is chairman and CEO of Fairchild Group, is backing what could be the first of several Canadian independent features from his new division Fairchild Films.

Paper Moon Affair, based on an idea by Fung, is a $1-million contemporary feature about a Japanese woman (played by Misa Shimizu of The Eel) who travels to a remote B.C. fishing village only to become embroiled in a love triangle.

Production runs May 31 to June 26. David Tamagi (Coffee) is the writer/director, while Michael Parker (Lunch with Charles) is the producer.

Among Fung’s assets are the Chinese pay services Fairchild Television and TalentVision. Ian Edwards