* Director: Vincenzo Natali * Writers: Andrew Miller and Andrew Lowery * Producer: Steve Hoban * Cinematographer: Derek Rogers * Diary by: Dustin Dinoff

It’s been six years since Vincenzo Natali’s feature debut Cube, but the director returns to the festival with Nothing, a $4-million sci-fi, F/X-laden comedy about a pair of friends who examine the nature of their relationship while the universe literally dissolves around them, leaving them in a total void.

The film’s producer, Steve Hoban, a partner in Toronto prodco 49th Parallel Films, did what can only be called some creative financing to make Nothing happen. By selling to markets where he and Natali have had previous success and handing sales for other territories to a German company – while retaining ownership of the film along with U.S. distribution rights – he makes the story of Nothing really something.

1995: Toronto filmmaker Vincenzo Natali comes up with a concept for a low-budget comedy about how people come to terms with death. The idea is temporarily abandoned while he makes his first feature, Cube. It is later fleshed out with David Hewlett and Andrew Miller, who will eventually star in the film.

November 2000: Natali approaches producer Steve Hoban with the screenplay for Nothing, written by Miller and Andrew Lowery and based on a treatment by Natali, Miller and Hewlett. Hoban, who produced the Natali short Elevated in 1997, likes the script and proposes a deal whereby all five players would own the film equally.

‘Being able to maintain ownership of the film to some extent was a really great and empowering thing for a filmmaker,’ says Natali. ‘It also meant I had final cut of the movie, so in a way it was ideal.’

February 2001: Having decided to finance Nothing by preselling to Canada, Japan and France before contracting a foreign sales company to handle the remaining foreign territories, and to keep the U.S. out of the financing altogether, Hoban attends the American Film Market and meets with representatives of Japan’s Klockworx Film. They express interest in the film based on the success Klockworx had distributing Cube in the Japanese market.

April 2001: As Hoban concludes negotiations with Klockworx, an unnamed French distributor says it’s prepared to put up the minimum guarantee needed to meet Nothing’s financing plan.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Senator International begins negotiations to put up a minimum guarantee for the sales rights to all foreign territories except Japan and France. Senator president Joe Drake is reportedly confident in the project based on the international success of Cube and Ginger Snaps, produced by Hoban and Karen Lee Hall.

Spring 2001: Natali goes on to shoot the Miramax feature Cypher (aka Company Man) in Toronto. The film will also make its local debut in TIFF 2003’s Midnight Madness section.

Summer 2001: The French distributor bails on Nothing, so Hoban hands distribution rights for France to Senator as well.

August 2001: Odeon Films picks up Nothing’s Canadian distribution rights. Federal and Ontario tax credits are also secured and the production appears to be fully financed. All of this is done while Natali posts Cypher.

The director credits Hoban with keeping Nothing moving. ‘He kept the boat afloat for a year,’ says Natali. ‘Steve has the wonderful and rare combination in a producer of being really brilliant and knowing how to put financing together for an independent picture, as well as having a creative sense and understanding of production on a visual effects picture.’

Winter 2001/02: The creative team uses the latest draft of Nothing to shoot a version of the movie on mini-DV, complete with music and sound effects, on a makeshift soundstage. They use the video as a tool to rewrite the screenplay.

April 2002: The creative team consults with key crew about the rewrite, only to find out it isn’t doable on the working budget, and the script is reworked.

May 2002: It is decided the tightened script still cannot be done on the budget. Compromises have to be made.

‘In many cases I think we would have made those cuts after production had we shot the material,’ says Natali. ‘But if you make those kinds of choices after the film is shot, it feels as though something has been extracted.’

June 2002: Telefilm Canada invests $750,000, and another $150,000 is accessed from Hoban’s performance envelope.

July 2002: Principal photography begins and goes very well according to Natali. With complicated F/X, stunts and wire-work, he credits his crew (largely the same used on Cube and Cypher) for the smooth shoot. ‘It was certainly the most fun I’ve had making a film, which I think is important for a comedy,’ he says.

August 2002: Production on Nothing wraps, and Toronto’s C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures – involved very early on in preproduction – continues to play an integral role on the post end. CORE completes at least 250 F/X shots.

‘C.O.R.E. wasn’t [just] doing conventional effects work,’ says Natali. ‘They were doing additional stuff I don’t think anyone has really done on film before. They were doing some pretty high-end, complex things and were being paid very little for it. C.O.R.E. is a studio run by artists and they think like artists, which for a filmmaker is a great thing.’

Spring/summer 2003: The effects and final mix are completed and Nothing is delivered.

September 2003: Nothing premiers at TIFF as part of the Perspective Canada program.