Twenty-one Canadian screenwriters will have a chance to develop their scripts, thanks to funding from the Astral Media Harold Greenberg Fund. The Script Development Program received 118 applications this year, in categories ranging from animation to historical epic and teen comedy.

Funded scripts include The Last Crossing by Rob King (Minds Eye Eentertainment) in the story optioning category; from the first draft section there is Vulnerable, written by Paul Quarrington (Cité-Amérique); while High Alert was chosen in the second draft category. The latter, produced under the High Alert Productions banner, is written by Ed Riche and Rick Mercer, with Norman Jewison set to direct.

Selected for final draft funding is the Susan Shipton-scripted Wild Dogs (The Film Farm), while writers Alex Epstein and Dan Singer will receive polish and packaging funding for Medieval: Knights of the Living Dead (Amaze Film + Television).

Every year the Script Development Program contributes $1.3 million from Astral’s The Movie Network to help develop Canadian feature film scripts.