Six-figure shoot in Calgary

Calgary – Local director David Christensen (Solitude) is in post on Six Figures, a $1.33-million feature film shot in and around his hometown of Calgary. Christensen wrote the screenplay based on Fred Leebron’s novel of the same name.

Six Figures stars Vancouver actor JR Bourne (Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning) as Warner, a middle-aged man who moves his family to Calgary where the economy is booming and wealth is on display. Things don’t go so well for Warner, but are they bad enough to push him to violence? Warner emerges as the prime suspect in a vicious attack on his wife, played by Toronto’s Caroline Cave (The War Bride), and is shocked to discover that those around him believe he may be capable of such a crime.

Jason Lee (Gingersnaps Unleashed) and Susan Bristow (Defining Edward) produce with Christensen under his Calgary production company Agitprop Films. The all-Canadian cast went before the cameras March 26 and wrapped April 21 with DOP Patrick McLaughlin (waydowntown).

Funding sources include Telefilm Canada, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, CHUM Television, TMN/MC, the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund and federal tax credits. Laura Bracken

Fleming wraps French Guy

Vancouver – Local artist-filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming is in post with her privately financed live-action feature The French Guy, which she wrote and directed over a 10-day shoot that wrapped April 21.

Called a dark comedy with horror elements, French Guy tells the story of a woman discharged from hospital after beating brain cancer only to develop other mysterious ailments.

The movie, inspired in part by Fleming’s own story of overhearing a murder, will be ready for Toronto International Film Festival scouts in Vancouver for prescreening in mid-May. Babz Chula (Last Wedding) stars along with Tygh Runyan (Traffic), Carly Pope (Everyone) and Heidi Iro (Moving Malcolm). Serge Bennathan, founder of Toronto dance troupe Dancemakers, has a cameo as the French guy.

The production, which makes use of special effects and makeup, was shot for under $500,000, mostly at a glamorous West End Vancouver apartment, says producer Adrian Salpeter. The final edit is also expected to highlight some of Fleming’s signature animation sequences, last seen in her documentary about her grandfather, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam.

Salpeter says there are no distributors or broadcasters yet attached to the project. Ian Edwards