Greenberg backs 24 in development

New projects by Sarah Polley, Jeremy Podeswa and Camelia Frieberg each took a step forward last month thanks to The Harold Greenberg Fund, which announced its support for 24 developing scripts.

Among the winners, the Alice Munro short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain has been optioned by Pulling Focus Pictures to be reworked by actress-turned-screenwriter Polley. The story, about a philandering husband and his wife who has Alzheimer’s disease, has been rechristened Away from Her.

Also optioned and approved by the fund, Douglas Coupland’s breakthrough novel Generation X has been picked up by Panacea Entertainment (Catching the Chameleon) and MVP Entertainment (The Wild Guys), while Perfect Circle has the Paul Quarrington book Homegame in development with screenwriter Doug Taylor (The Atwood Stories).

Also of note, filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa (The Five Senses) is writing Raymond and Hannah, about a long-distance romance, from the novel by Stephen Marche, while Chris Abraham and Liisa Repo-Martell adapt Ronald Wright’s time-traveling A Scientific Romance for Triptych Media.

Amaze Film + Television (Saint Ralph) has optioned Still Life with June, a drama based on the novel by Darren Greer.

The fund also backed first, second and final drafts, including Deep Water by Mike Downie, codirector of 2002’s Hockey Nomad. It’s about a rock star trying to help out a small fishing village. Camelia Frieberg and Garfield Miller, meanwhile, are writing the romance/environmental disaster A Stone’s Throw for Palpable Productions.

The Harold Greenberg Fund, an offshoot of Astral Media, also confirmed its equity investments in six film and TV projects, including Clement Virgo’s Poor Boy’s Game, Weirdsville by Darius Films and director Allan Moyle, and second seasons of both Life with Derek and Naturally Sadie, from Shaftesbury Films and Decode Entertainment, respectively. Sean Davidson

Martin returns with Dans les villes

Montreal – Critically acclaimed director Catherine Martin (Marriages) has returned to the feature filmmaking fold with Dans les villes, a drama shooting here until Nov. 18.

‘I have worked with Catherine before, and I love her poetic film language,’ says producer Real Chabot. ‘Catherine has a way of directing that is very sensual and very personal.’

Hélène Florent (Yellowknife) stars as a woman who takes care of a town’s trees. During her work, she meets a number of the townsfolk, including a suicidal woman, an aging woman facing the end of her life, and a blind man played by art-house superstar Robert Lepage.

The $1.4-million shoot is produced by Le Coop Video and Chabot’s Productions 23, with support from Telefilm Canada and SODEC. It will be distributed by TVA Films in the summer of 2006.

Martin directed the 50-minute short Océan in 2002 and the Jutra- and Genie-nominated Marriages, her first feature, in 2001. Matthew Hays

Broadway comes to Sudbury

Sudbury – Working from the script for an off-Broadway play, Sudden Storm Productions is in Sudbury, ON, this month for the 25-day shoot of Barstool Words, a dark comedy by Josh Ben Friedman based on his 2003 play.

Vincent Kartheiser (Angel) and Geoffrey Arend (Garden State) star as two friends who run afoul of a femme fatale from their past, played by Sarah Carter of Skinwalkers. Colm Feore and rookie Krystin Pellerin also star.

‘We just threw a car off a cliff at Inco,’ beams producer Jesse Ikeman, referring to the local mining operation and its massive quarry. ‘It was probably the biggest day of the shoot.’

Jeff Glickman directs, making his feature debut. Glickman also helmed the stage version of Barstool in New York and, with Ikeman, is a cofounder of Sudden Storm, a service and finance company based in Toronto.

The project has presales in place with The Movie Network, CHUM and Movie Central, and also won the backing of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, a big booster of the region’s nascent film industry. Morris Ruskin and Michael May exec produce.

Because its writer is American, Barstool was not eligible for Telefilm Canada funding. No word on the budget, though Ikeman notes it’s ‘very difficult to get a project off the ground’ without the federal agency. He plans to take the film on the festival circuit and hopes to ink theater deals through international sales agent Shoreline Entertainment.

Ikeman and Glickman previously teamed on the 2002 short The Store, another stage adaptation that starred Patrick McKenna (The Red Green Show). Sean Davidson