Saint John may not seem a likely place to recreate the biggest city in North America, but on Sept. 30, the New Brunswick city became the location for the six-week shoot of Jericho Mansions, a $10-million feature set in a New York City apartment building.

Producer Suzanne Lyons says the architecture turned out to be a great match for New York, because after an 1877 fire wiped out much of Saint John, architects rebuilt in a style similar to Boston and New York apartments, leaving several city blocks that closely resemble the Big Apple.

Lyons, who along with partner Kate Robbins runs L.A.-based Snowfall Films, was born in New Brunswick and is thankful for the opportunity to work on a feature at home, something she’s dreamed of doing since leaving Canada 13 years ago.

‘I always intended to come back and work on a film [in New Brunswick] and I’m thrilled to be able to do that and to support the local industry,’ she says.

Coproduced with Michael Cowan and Jason Piette of The Spice Factory in London, Lyons partnered with producer Jean-Marc Felio of Montreal prodco Milagro Films to help the film meet official U.K./Canada coproduction guidelines.

Jericho Mansions is the eighth screenplay from Spanish-born director Alberto Sciamma and wife Harriet Sand and the third feature Sciamma has directed.

The murder-mystery focuses on a building superintendent, played by James Caan, who follows clues that eventually lead him back to himself as the prime suspect in the murder. Caan has made his way across Canada to New Brunswick via the Prairies, where he just completed The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie from Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures. Other Jericho Mansions cast members include Genevieve Bujold (Dead Ringers), Maribel Verdu (Y Tu Mama Tambien), Jennifer Tilly (Liar, Liar) and Peter Keleghan (Ginger Snaps).

The feature is distributed domestically by Equinox Films and internationally by Vine International Pictures. It received additional funding from Film NB and Movision (a U.K. film and TV financing company) as well as provincial and federal tax credits.

Lyons says she aims to have the film ready for submission to Cannes 2003 and is developing additional projects, which she also plans to shoot in New Brunswick.

The first from Original Six

A new Halifax prodco, Original Six Productions, has just wrapped its first project, Quilts, a half-hour digital drama for CBC. Producer Margaret Harrison and writer/director Brian Heighton formed the company to produce Quilts after winning the CBC/NSFDC Bridge Award, which in conjunction with Telefilm Canada’s Atlantic Emerging Filmmakers Program and additional support from Halifax-based imX communications financed the $61,427 short.

The production went to camera in Halifax on Oct. 23 and wrapped Oct. 27, to be aired by the public broadcaster in May. Harrison and Heighton praise the local community for being supportive of the project, in particular imX and the local cast, which includes some of the province’s top talents.

The short stars Kevin Curran (New Waterford Girl) as Lloyd, an ordinary guy who suffered a head injury playing hockey in high school and who, in his twenties, is struggling to be normal. The drama also features Gary Levert (Trudeau), John Dunsworth (The Shipping News) and Tara Doyle (Parsley Days).

Before going to camera on Quilts, Heighton directed six episodes of Chester, NS-based Big Motion Pictures’ A Guy and A Girl and plans to make his way into features through shorter, manageable projects.

Heighton first worked with Harrison as an actor in the National Screen Institute Drama Prize-winning short film In Between, directed by Daun Windover and produced by Harrison. Heighton also played the role of Brian Peckford in BMP’s Trudeau.

Harrison and Heighton intend to move forward with Original Six and are in preliminary development on several feature scripts written by Heighton.

P.E.I. tackles untold story

Between 1869 and 1930, more than 100,000 children known as the Home Children were taken from their homes and families in the U.K. and sent to Canada to work as agricultural laborers and domestic servants.

Gretha Rose of Charlottetown-based Cellar Door Productions and Johanna Eliot of Halifax-based Ocean Entertainment will coproduce a one-hour documentary, Crossing The Golden Bridge: The Story of Canada’s Home Children, on this unexplored topic. They have completed development and are in the process of securing production funds. Crossing The Golden Bridge will introduce two or three Home Children and their families, hoping to shed light on the assumptions and identity challenges Home Children and their descendents face.

Rose says the documentary generated considerable response recently at MIPCOM and the producers are currently in negotiations with various international broadcasters. The doc will be shot primarily in Prince Edward Island, with additional locations in both Nova Scotia and Ontario.

P.E.I.-born director Donna Davies will helm the $200,000 doc for broadcast on Global early next year. Rose has secured a licence fee from Global, with additional funding from Technology PEI, and will be looking for CTF production funds in the next round.

Cellar Door is also in production on 39 new episodes of Doodlez, a series of animated shorts, the first 11 of which are currently airing on Teletoon. The budget for the 39 two-minute shorts is around $1 million.