Canada’s recently dethroned box-office champ Porky’s – which saw its $11.2-million domestic box office take surpassed last month by Bon Cop, Bad Cop – celebrates its 25th anniversary with a modest splash on home video Nov. 21.

Maple Pictures will handle publicity, promotion, artwork and the shipping of 25,000 units to retailers in a deal with TVA Films, which has distribution rights in Canada. The release comes on the heels of a similar, but unrelated, barebones ‘special edition’ on Oct. 24 from 20th Century Fox in the U.S.

Financed by the late Harold Greenberg’s Astral Bellevue Pathé and produced by a young Don Carmody and director Bob Clark, the coming-of-age story about a group of horny high school buddies in 1950s Florida took in more than US$100 million in North American box office in 1982 and counts among its supporters Norman Mailer and playwright Arthur Miller. Radio shockjock Howard Stern bought the remake rights and is said to have a script ready to take into production.

The raunchy teen comedy, which made headlines because it had more uses of the F-word, the C-word and the B-word than Raging Bull, was written and directed by Ft. Lauderdale-raised Clark, who had done post-production for a half dozen films in Toronto before Porky’s through Cinépix and Quadrant Films.

‘We came up to Toronto [for Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things in 1972] and kind of fell in love with it,’ says Clark, on a lunch break on the Vancouver set of the remake of Children, starring Winnipeger Adam Beach (Flags of Our Fathers). ‘I got offered Black Christmas following that. So I became a landed immigrant and lived in Toronto for 12 years.’

Clark says he knew Porky’s box-office potential, but 20th Century Fox wasn’t as confident. ‘They weren’t going to release the movie,’ he says. ‘Fortunately, [then-president] Sherry Lansing was the champion of it and we finally got a screening.

‘Everything in Porky’s is essentially true,’ says Clark in his southern twang. ‘Growing up and our sexual coming-of-age is an incredible part of what human beings are about. Porky’s was the first movie to explore that. If you don’t like it, I don’t give a crap. It’s outrageous, because we were outrageous. It isn’t just about their penises.’ Clark pauses for a moment. ‘Hell, it is a lot about that – because we were very obsessed with our penises.’

Also…

* Maple will ship 5,500 units of Canuck superhero comedy Sidekick on Nov. 14 to Blockbuster, Rogers, Movie Gallery and HMV. Extras include outtakes, deleted scenes, interviews, and audition footage.

‘I wanted the DVD to not only be a time capsule of all we accomplished,’ says writer/producer Michael Sparaga, ‘but also a ‘how-to’ for indie filmmakers interested in making movies of their own.’

* German film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days will street on Nov. 14 from Mongrel Media. The distrib will send out 4,000 units of the Academy Award nominee and will do targeted marketing to the Christian community.

* English- and French-language versions of the docudrama Le Dernier trappeur street on Nov. 14 from Christal Films in Quebec. Special features include a photo gallery and a French-only 59-minute making-of doc available with the Christal edition. Maple is releasing it as The Last Trapper in English Canada.