If their stack of research papers is any indication, Jack Blum and Sharon Corder are clearly very ‘into’ writing their new project. The husband and wife team, who previously put in time at Traders and Power Play, and whose short DNA played last year’s festival circuit, showed up at a recent lunch meeting proudly showing off a phonebook-sized heap of newspapers and clippings – all from the 1930s, all about a forgotten natural disaster that killed hundreds and knocked this city on its collective, post-Victorian ass.

A disaster in Toronto, you say? Perhaps some sort of virulent disease? A blizzard? A power outage? No, no and no, says Blum. It was a heat wave.

Sunnyside, a miniseries now in development for CBC, goes back to July 1936, when the temperature ’round these parts jumped well above 100 F (37 C) and stayed there for 12 non-air-conditioned days, setting off riots and stretching the moral limits of Toronto the (then) Very Good.

‘The sidewalks were exploding,’ says Blum, holding up an old Toronto Daily Star cover and smiling, just a little. The city ran out of hearses, a gang of women took a city councillor hostage and tens of thousands moved en masse down to the lake just to keep cool.

Blum and Corder are writing and, given the nod, will produce a four- or six-hour mini as early as next year under the banner of their Burning Past Productions. They hope to make something on the scale of Shattered City.

They have been researching for a few years now, and were surprised to uncover so many untold stories.

‘We have a really interesting history so let’s claim it,’ says Corder.

Court date

Moving on from Dominick Dunne (Guilty Pleasure) and Richard Monette (Madness of King Richard), the next big-name profile piece from Barry Avrich and Melbar Entertainment Group will get up close and personal with defence lawyer extraordinaire Eddie Greenspan. A Criminal Mind is in post with editor Jeff Warren (Rare Birds) and is set to air by the end of March on CBC’s Life and Times. Avrich directs, and produces with Nat Brescia and Victoria Hockin.

The project looks at Greenspan’s storied career and includes screen time with his old chum Conrad Black. The Niagara Falls, ON-born barrister is now leading Black’s legal defense team.

This summer Avrich will also shoot Lew Wasserman: The Last Mogul, a bio-doc about the powerful studio head for Bravo!, The Movie Network and for ThinkFilm, which is set to distribute to U.S. theaters. After that he’ll get back to Dirty Hands, a more ambitious doc about artwork stolen by the Nazis.

An upset win

Filmmaker Andrew Munger of Ultramagnetic Productions recently spent a lot of time with Toronto’s new mayor, shooting David Miller and his team all through last year’s turbulent election for Campaign, a TV doc now posting for CBC Newsworld.

A mutual friend got Munger in with Miller and his advisors, even though the former city councillor was thought to be a long shot at the time. ‘I knew it was going to be an exciting election, but [following Miller] was a bit of a roll of the dice,’ says Munger. ‘My luck paralleled his luck.’

Munger directed on a budget somewhere under $100,000 and is editing with Tim Kirkwood. He will deliver to the Ceeb in April, ahead of an expected May airing.

Newsworld rejected the project at first, but flip-flopped when Miller surged ahead in the polls, says Munger. A copro deal is also closing with the National Film Board, which will attach Gerry Flahive as exec producer.

They see dead people

Catch a ghost, gremlin, wendigo, sasquatch or even good ol’ Ogopogo on camera and you could get $50,000 from the producers of Creepy Canada, who have posted a reward for audiovisual ‘proof’ of paranormal activity. The CTV Travel series, turned out by Toronto’s EYEbeam Media, is looking to build a 4 x 60 series of TV specials around the submissions, set to air sometime around Halloween. The winning footage will be used for a one-hour special, followed by three hours to be shared by 12 runners-up.

Applicants must supply footage, eyewitnesses and submit to both

lie detector tests and ‘rigorous’ on-site examination by a jury of technical experts, says EYEbeam partner Bill Burke. If it can’t be explained, it wins.

Burke insists that the Creepy team wants to award the money, and that there are no hidden rules or tricks. A Toronto Star reporter, a doctor of microbiology and a video forensics expert are among the jurors. See ‘Proof’ at www.creepycanada.com for details. Creepy Canada also airs on CTV, OLN and Discovery Channel.

Killer material

Telefilm Canada is backing the development of Cop Killers, the latest feature from Leda Serene Films and Frances-Anne Solomon (Lord Have Mercy!). Valerie Buhagiar (Three and a Half) and Gail Maurice are set to star as Rose Cece and Mary Taylor, two homeless women who made headlines when they killed a Toronto police officer in 1998.

The three are writing a fictional story about the events leading up to the murder. Leoni Forbes also writes and stars as a social worker.

Solomon is shopping for a distributor. She will direct and hopes to shoot in downtown Toronto this summer. ‘I really want to ground it in the street,’ says Solomon, pointing to one or two slummy neighborhoods. Jeff Sterne will produce with Solomon, James Griffith (Expecting) is DOP.