It’s been about a year since Fred Fuchs (The Godfather Part 3, Dracula) left the top job at American Zoetrope and relocated, with his Canadian-born wife, from San Francisco to Toronto. The noted producer has since hooked up with a variety of Canuck companies and will likely see his first north-of-the-border film, Bleeding by B.C.-based Crescent Entertainment, go to camera later this month.

‘We’re very close to closing a deal with an actor now and hope to be in production by the end of January,’ says Fuchs from his Yorkville office. He is exec producer on the Canada/U.K. copro, to be directed by Stephen Surjik (Wayne’s World 2) and distributed by Seville Pictures.

Fuchs has also teamed with Triptych Media on the feature High Life, but plans to concentrate on U.S. and international productions. ‘I’ve met a lot of good people here, but the feature film industry is such a mess. It’s so convoluted,’ he says, adding he is keen to partner with French and German producers. ‘But if I could find financing in Canada, I think there’s a huge opportunity for someone with real equity to have an impact on the industry.’