Nomad travels the world

Toronto – The aptly named Nomad Films is looking to send its people across Africa and up Mount Everest for a number of projects set to shoot in the coming year.

The Toronto production house is looking to expand from docs into drama, starting with Half a Million Heroes, the life story of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Nomad has bought the rights to the Nigerian activist’s life story and is looking to make a $10-million to $15-million feature with help from Toronto copro partner Triptych Media.

Djimon Hounsou (The Island, Amistad) has signed to star, and, if Triptych secures U.K. funding, Half a Million could shoot in South Africa next year. Nomad owner and producer Mark Johnston has been shopping the script to directors including Jim Sheridan (Get Rich or Die Tryin’) and Jean-Jacques Annaud (Two Brothers, Seven Years in Tibet).

Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian government in 1995, ending years of environmental and political activism against the oil industry. Nomad previously copro’d the doc In the Shadow of a Saint, based on the book by Saro-Wiwa’s son, Ken Wiwa.

Johnston and Saro-Wiwa were friends. ‘His was a huge story in Europe, especially Britain,’ notes Johnston. ‘It’s about a man’s struggle against injustice, and I think people really care.’

Nomad is also sending first-time long-former Edith Champagne to the Sudan this fall to shoot an epilogue to its The Man Who Could Be King. An expanded, 90-minute version of the 2003 doc, about a Sudanese refugee and reluctant leader, has been picked up by National Geographic International.

Johnston, meanwhile, is waiting to shoot The Climb, a one-hour doc for CBC about the first Canadians to climb Mount Everest in 1982. It is a companion to a four-hour mini in the works at Toronto’s Screen Door. Shooting in Nepal is slated for spring.

Earlier this year, Nomad hired Tambre Leighn, back in Canada after several years working and teaching in L.A., as its new executive in charge of production. She is looking to expand Nomad’s rep for docs, established by Johnston, into larger narrative projects.

‘My coming on is about expanding the company into much larger projects… and nurturing more talent,’ she says. Sean Davidson

Déry, Falardeau team on Congorama

Montreal – Un crabe dans la tête producer Luc Déry of Montreal’s micro_scope and Quebec-based writer/director Philippe Falardeau, director of the Jutra-winning La Moitié gauche du frigo, have teamed up on Congorama, a feature currently shooting in and around Montreal.

The dramedy about two men whose paths cross in Canada and Belgium is a Canada/Belgium/France coproduction from micro_scope, Tarantula Belgium and Tarantula France.

Principal photography started in Montreal July 4 and continues to Aug. 2, with unconfirmed shoot dates planned for September and October in Belgium.

Congorama was one of six films selected from among 33 Quebec submissions to receive Telefilm Canada funding through the April 2004 round of applications to the Canada Feature Film Fund.

Paul Ahmarani, Benoît Poelvoorde and Olivier Goulet star. Christal Films is set to distribute. Laura Bracken

Infinity Pushes to acquire Bourla script

Vancouver – Infinity Media, producer of Saved! and The Snow Walker, is currently looking for a director for its sci-fi thriller Push. According to producer Kyle Mann, Infinity acquired the script by David Bourla (Nostradamus) in April and hopes to begin production on the feature in early 2006.

Infinity’s Mann, Michael Ohoven, William Vince, Kerry Rock and Gretchen Somerfeld will produce, with Bourla exec producing. The film, about a group of Americans with psychic abilities hiding from the U.S. government in Beijing, will likely shoot in China – new territory for Infinity.

‘I expect there will be unforeseen obstacles and difficulties,’ says Mann. ‘We have begun to approach Asian financiers and investors. We’re realistic and know we have to go in there with someone who understands Chinese culture.’

Mann says the film could become a Canadian coproduction with either China or the U.K. or both. The budget has not been set.

Infinity’s Canada/U.K. coproduction Ripley Under Ground, from director Roger Spottiswoode (The Matthew Shepard Story) is currently in post. Barry Pepper (The Snow Walker) stars as the murderous Thomas Ripley, a role also tackled by Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), John Malkovich in Ripley’s Game (2002) and Dennis Hopper in The American Friend (1977). Dustin Dinoff