Director: Paul Fox
Writer: Douglas Coupland
Producers: Chris Nanos, Elizabeth Yake, Henrik Meyer
Cast: Paulo Costanzo, Steph Song,
JR Bourne
Distributor: ThinkFilm

It’s a first for iconic Canuck author Douglas Coupland (Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture) – a film based on a story he wrote specifically for the screen.

So did Coupland write his first screenplay for art’s sake, or just for the money? That’s a question that would haunt Ryan (Paulo Costanzo), Coupland’s aging slacker protagonist in Everything’s Gone Green.

According to Coupland, ‘Everything’s Gone Green is about when you get older and you feel certain doors closing very quickly on you. It deals with that feeling of ‘now or never.”

Certainly this is the kind of dilemma facing Ryan. As youth slips away, he is left wondering if he can maintain his slacker – but morally upright – ways, when everyone around him – his older brother Bryce (JR Bourne), his father (Tom Butler), and even Ming Yu (Steph Song), the woman he loves – is obsessed with making money any way they can.

The production also marks a new direction for both Toronto’s Radke Film Group – which previously made only TV commercials – and its producer Chris Nanos. (Radke co-produces with Vancouver’s True West Films.)

‘After being on the advertising agency side of things for 10 years, I wanted to produce my first feature film,’ say Nanos. ‘Radke was also looking to break into feature films. After a four-month interview process, they said, ‘Let’s get together.”

April 2001: Radke and Nanos talk about opening a features and special projects division, which they eventually do.

In a bid to bring a ‘fresh perspective’ to feature filmmaking, Nanos and Radke don’t wait for scripts to come in the door. Instead, ‘we decided to go after people whom we wanted to work with,’ Nanos recalls.

Putting that approach into practice, Nanos calls Coupland to ask if he has any scripts he is looking to get produced.

‘He answered my call, told me that he did, and said he would send it over,’ Nanos says.

After reviewing Coupland’s and others’ scripts for three months, Radke decides to make Everything’s Gone Green.

April 2002: Paul Fox, who has directed short films and episodes of The Associates and Drop the Beat – but never a feature – is attached to direct, and Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy is brought on to story edit.

January 2003: Radke goes out looking for hard financing for the film’s budget of nearly $2 million, but given that there are a number of ‘firsts’ involved with the project, it doesn’t succeed. In France and Germany, the prodco is disappointed after many false starts. Dan Lyon comes on board as executive producer.

February 2004: The funding process is taking so long that Fox gets the chance to direct The Dark Hours, a feature thriller made through the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project. The Green producers are overjoyed with Fox’s opportunity, as it would remove the ‘first-time-director’ stigma that investors have been struggling with regarding their project. While Fox makes The Dark Hours, Radke goes after ‘soft financing.’

November 2004: At the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Financing Incubator program, Nanos talks up the project to industry professionals, and, subsequently, ThinkFilm comes on board as the Canadian distributor.

The producers apply to Telefilm Canada’s Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program for funding.

Winter 2004/05: Radke joins forces with True West Films’ Elizabeth Yake, who made a name for herself with It’s All Gone Pete Tong, and her partner Henrik Meyer, to shoot the film in Vancouver as a B.C./Ontario copro.

February 2005: Telefilm comes on board along with foreign sales agent Shoreline Entertainment, broadcaster CHUM and The Harold Greenberg Fund. The project ‘goes green.’

June 5, 2005: With funding finally in place, principal photography begins in Vancouver. The film stars Paulo Costanzo, best known for his supporting turn on the NBC sitcom Joey, and Steph Song. The Malaysian-Canadian Song is already popular in Asia, having been voted one of the 10 sexiest women alive in a 2004 poll in a local version of FHM magazine. Also starring is Canuck actor JR Bourne (Six Figures).

There are 20 days scheduled for shooting, but Fox is able to cut it down to 19, demonstrating the kind of enterprising behavior that would make the character of Ryan cringe.

Nov. 11, 2005: The Dark Hours is released to little box office but good reviews and travels to festivals around the world.

April 2006: Post-production is completed at facilities in Vancouver and Toronto, including Rainmaker, Post Modern Sound and Deluxe.

Sept. 10, 2006: Everything’s Gone Green will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Canada First! showcase.

Fall 2006: ThinkFilm plans to open the film in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.