Canadian comedienne deluxe Mary Walsh has signed on to write and star in Devine Entertainment’s first theatrical feature film, Puppy Love. The project marks another first, with Walsh penning her debut theatrical film script.

Puppy Love is a coproduction of Devine and Debbie Nightingale’s Toronto prodco, The Nightingale Company. For Devine, Richard Mozer will act as producer along with the company’s pesident and CEO David Devine, who will also direct.

The bones-to-biscuits tale follows a golden retriever named Giver who becomes the main beneficiary of his deceased master’s multimillion-dollar fortune. Walsh is cast as Florence Van Loon, who, along with fellow family members, schemes up a plan to deny the dog his due.

‘We are extremely pleased to be working with Mary Walsh,’ says Devine. ‘With her expertise in comedy writing and performance, we are sure to produce an international hit for people of all ages. And it’s 100% Canadian content.’

The $6-million picture has yet to be financed, but Devine says discussions are underway with three distributors. ‘I haven’t sold anything yet. I just signed Mary,’ he says.

The shoot is planned for 30 days around Ontario and will go to camera in April 2002.

In September, Devine also announced a development deal with CBC for a television movie, The Way Home. The MOW will be produced by Mozer and Devine, who is again set to direct.

Based on the novel Diamonds in the Rough by Eric Walters, the script is being written by Susin Nielsen (Madison, Monet: Shadow and Light, Degrassi Junior High), who will also act as creative producer on the project.

The story looks at the ‘outrageous journey of personal discovery’ taken by a teen and her uncle as they try to keep their family together after the death of its matriarch.

Financing and distribution have yet to be confirmed.

Have mercy! Granofsky to shoot Ladies Night

Have Mercy Pictures’ Anais Granofsky describes her latest feature, Ladies Night, in excited terms: ‘It’s basically about women fighting and talking and kissing and loving. There’s a bit of sex in there. Ladies loving ladies.’

The film examines the adventures of four women involved in ‘a debaucherous ladies club,’ and follows the familiar Have Mercy theme that Granofsky says ‘tends to be about crazy ladies.’

Telefilm Canada is on board with development funding for the project, still in the writing stages. Granofsky will write and direct the feature, while Have Mercy partner Vicki Gryspeerdt will produce.

‘We’re going to shoot this on HD, just to try it out,’ the writer/director says. ‘And the story calls for it. Moving with the actors and letting them do their thing. So you can take a video camera and follow [the ladies] into their little room while they’re making out.’

Although a budget has yet to be determined, Granofsky, well-known for her role as Lucy on the original Degrassi series, explains it will, like Have Mercy’s previous flicks (Have Mercy, On Their Knees,) be less than $500,000. No distributors have been approached yet.

Granofsky says the shoot is tentatively scheduled for March 2002 in Toronto, and she will employ much the same cast and crew as her previous features, although a final cast list has not been confirmed. ‘You’ve got to get your community kind of going,’ she says.

Norflicks relocates from West Bank

Toronto’s Norflicks Productions is hard at work on Knowing Eternity, a 13-episode, half-hour doc series featuring prominent Catholic layperson Jean Vanier discussing the relevance of the Gospel of John in today’s troubled world, with an emphasis on the Middle East. The series is slated to air on Vision TV in early 2002. Ironically, the production was planned to shoot in the West Bank and Israel before ‘recent occurrences made it impossible to insure a crew there.’

The production settled on an Augustinian monastery in King City, ON as its location, but still hopes to supplement the footage with pictures ‘to be shot in the Middle East with resident camera crews.’ It is unlikely Vanier will travel to Israel as originally planned.

Using footage from the September shoot, Norflicks also intends to deliver an additional one-hour program on the same topic to the CBC in spring 2002.

Norflicks also plans to repackage Knowing Eternity as two separate series, Knowing Ourselves and Experiencing the Mystical.

Directed and produced by Richard Nielson, the series was financed through licence fees from Vision as well as donations from unnamed private foundations. Neilson says the under-$1-million budget was ‘possible only because of our minimalist approach.’

A Yugoslavian connection

Summer Pictures producer Tom Strnad is tapping into a Yugoslavian connection for the company’s next feature project, Three and a Half. The 90-minute movie will be directed by Boris Mojsovski, in what will be his first feature project. Summer has also recruited Boris’ Yugoslavia-based father, Levko Mojsovski, as cinematographer on the project.

Financed through Telefilm Canada’s Low Budget Feature Film Assistance Program and provincial and federal tax credits, the $400,000 production follows the stories of three screenwriters whose films ‘explore the nature of reality and existence.’ Negotiations to secure a distributor are underway.

Several key actors have already been attached to the project, including Matt Lemche (Twice in a Lifetime, The City) and Walter Alza (Sealed with a Kiss, Due South).

Director Mojsovski wrote the script along with fellow York University Film School graduates Mike Thorn and Michael Emberley. Strnad is producing alongside the younger Mojsovski. Strnad will edit the picture.

Three and a Half will be lensed over 20 days in and around Toronto. To be shot in 35mm, the film going to camera on halloween and is slated for release in spring 2002.

Ssshh – it’s Secret Secretaries

What’s that whisper? Ottawa’s GAPC Entertainment is starting production on a one-hour documentary called Secret Secretaries. Writer/director Penny McCann’s script is based on the novel The True Intrepid by Bill MacDonald.

The story picks up in 1941 when Canadian Sir William Stephenson, the man they call Intrepid, is setting up an espionage centre in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. At the time, Stephenson took 800 to 900 Canadian women to the Plaza to break code. The doc looks at this non-traditional role played by women in WWII.

With a first window on WTN, and second windows with the Saskatchewan Communications Network and Knowledge Network, the documentary takes additional financing from the Cable Production Fund. The budget is set at around $200,000. A distributor has yet to be secured.

The 15-day shoot got underway at the end of September and takes place in Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria and Winnipeg. GAPC president Ken Stewart is executive producer. ‘We’re hoping to be completed before the end of March,’ Stewart reports. No air date has been set.

Nurse Gerber goes AWOL

Helmer Heidi Gerber (Eva Meets Felix, Hustle My Crush) is hard at work on her latest short film, the dark comedy AWOL, through producer Angie Pajek’s Toronto prodco Aqui Esta Productions. Rhombus Media’s Danny Irons is executive producer.

Gerber, who also wrote the script, is a registered nurse at Toronto’s Hospital For Sick Children, working in the psychiatric unit for eating disorders. The script digs into her experiences in the unit.

The short picks up following a tough morning when nurse Berry Black decides to cut loose from her stressful job on the ward. When followed by a suicidal patient, the two get stuck on an elevator and ‘discover what they both need to regain courage and inspire hope – each other.’

The $40,000 short was financed entirely through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Calling Card Program and will be broadcast on Showcase in 2002. The five-day September shoot took place at a rehab hospital in Toronto.

Associate producer Nan Row says ‘everyone worked on the project for free. It was amazing.’

The producers hope to screen the short at next year’s Toronto International Film Festival before it airs on Showcase.