* Writer/director: Gary Yates
* Producers: Liz Jarvis, Gary Yates
* Cast: Kevin Pollak, Liane Balaban

The more accurate title for 35-year-old Gary Yates’ debut feature Seven Times Lucky may actually be Seven Years Lucky – the time the project struggled to get born and screen at TIFF 2004. Or maybe Seven Years to Debt, which is the fate of the producers after a financing partner reneged on a quarter million. The so-called ‘Christmas noir’ feature’s twisty-turny genesis is in line with its twist-filled plot, in which three generations of crooks vie for a coveted prize on Christmas Eve.

Fall 1997: Winnipeg-based Gary Yates, feasting on a diet of Elmore Leonard novels during an extended stay in the Bahamas, decides to expand on his short film script Harlan and Fiona (which shot in 1998), based on Leonard’s criminally minded characters. ‘I was inspired by [Leonard’s] colorful characters and complex morals,’ says Yates. With Winnipeg producer Ian Handford, Yates gets Telefilm Canada money for a treatment.

January 1998: Winnipeg writer/ editor Robert Lower joins as a story editor and the script for Seven Times Lucky (7XL) moves to first draft.

1999 & 2000: The lost years. Making a living intervenes and bilingual Yates, a Montreal native, directs eight wildlife documentaries for French-language TV. Handford is working with Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures, run by Phyllis Laing and Liz Jarvis, as a production manager. In mid-2000, domestic partners Jarvis and Handford have a baby. Handford, the infant’s main caregiver, passes producing duties to Jarvis.

March 2001: Superchannel (now Movie Central), Telefilm and Manitoba Film & Sound finance a second draft. The National Screen Institute’s Features First program helps 7XL get into shape for production financing.

June 2001: Through NSI, the producers attend the Banff Television Festival, where they meet Marguerite Pigott, then a VP at Odeon Films. ‘Marguerite became a champion of the project,’ says Yates.

The script tinkering begins, with the final script going through eight different endings.

Nov. 27, 2001: A table reading of the latest draft on Yates’ birthday is especially hard. ‘It was brutal, one of the most difficult days of my professional career,’ says Yates. An audience of potential investors, Telefilm reps and festival programmers, 35 speaking parts, a complicated script, and only a handful of unrehearsed actors doing quadruple duty on roles made the whole experience ‘convoluted and farcical,’ he says. He spends three hours sick.

February 2002: Undaunted, Yates pounds out a new draft, which goes out to Odeon, Movie Central and The Movie Network. The broadcasters come on board.

March 2002: Odeon makes a conditional offer for an advance, based on a budget of $2.6 million.

May 2002: Manitoba Film & Sound, faced with an unprecedented number of applications, turns down 7XL for equity financing despite its high ranking. Jarvis pulls out the political stops, lobbies provincial cabinet ministers, appeals, and gets 10% of the budget. The Harold Greenberg Fund continually turns the project down.

August 2002: Producers get a conditional letter from Telefilm, soon to expire. Odeon hasn’t yet approved the script, so Pigott travels to Winnipeg for a two-day meeting with second script editor Brad Caslor (a storyboard artist who worked with Yates previously). Script doctors Caslor and Lower eventually edit the feature.

September 2002: At TIFF, producers meet Josh Miller, executive at Regina’s Minds Eye Pictures, which by then owns half of Buffalo Gal Pictures. Minds Eye agrees to advance $250,000 for international rights.

October 2002: With only $2 million confirmed, Telefilm extends its letter to Nov. 29. Five months of local Winnipeg casting begins. ‘I saw everyone in Winnipeg,’ says Yates. ‘I didn’t have the money to bring in actors for 35 speaking parts. That scared a lot of people, including Odeon, but people are so impressed with these so-called ‘day players.”

December 2002: With the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund in, financing is now at $2.2 million, $100,000 below Odeon’s floor of $2.3 million. Producers convince the distributor that production values won’t be hurt by the lowered budget. The script goes out to Toronto actor Liane Balaban (New Waterford Girl) to play Fiona.

January 2003: Producers want to offer Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) the lead role of Harlan. But Odeon insists they go through another list, including Gary Sinise, John C. Reilly and Tim Roth, first.

February 2003: Odeon greenlights the script. Balaban meets Yates in Toronto. Pollak gets an offer and signs on almost immediately, asking only that the schedule be pushed two weeks. As cast is confirmed, the budget blooms with new money from the Canadian Television Fund. By the time principal photography begins, the budget is $2.6 million.

March 8, 2003: Five weeks of shooting begin in -40 C weather. Steve Cosens (Flower & Garnet) handles DOP chores. Producers have to time how long the crew works outside. By the time the production finishes, the temperature rises to 27 C. Snow continuity is a challenge.

April to July 2003: Sound mixing and print mastering are done in Winnipeg at MidCan, while lab work is done in Toronto. An unknown perpetrator drops a reel and scratches the negative. Meanwhile, producers can’t clear the Rolex brand on watches used as props, adding up to some unanticipated digital effects fixes.

July 2003: Minds Eye files for credit protection. Producers say they are assured their advance is secure.

November 2003: Geoff Gilmore, director of Sundance, screens the fine cut at Telefilm in Montreal. Buffalo Gal officially splits from Minds Eye. 7XL is invited to Sundance.

Jan. 17, 2004: The world premiere screening takes place in Salt Lake City, UT to a packed and enthusiastic crowd. Producers look forward to the Park City, UT screening two days later, but are dismayed by reports that most of the distributors have already made their offers on Sundance films.

February 2004: Based on the positive Variety review, ICM arranges screenings in L.A. and New York – but no U.S. sales result. ‘We had a healthy dose of reality going in,’ says Jarvis, ‘but there is always that hope.’

March 2004: The Canadian premiere is held at the NSI’s Film Exchange Festival in Winnipeg.

June 2004: 7XL is invited to TIFF. Odeon plans a fall Canadian release.

July 2004: Minds Eye informs producers it is unable to pay the advance, meaning fees for Yates, Laing and Jarvis will pay off the bank – almost.

August 2004: Yates and Jarvis, with U.S. and international rights in hand, get ready for TIFF. ‘We think it’s appealing when producers attend a market with their international rights intact,’ says Jarvis. Yates starts shooting his second feature, The Niagara Hotel, Aug. 30.