Montreal: Taurus 7 Film Corp. is in casting on the family fantasy film Perseverance, with Jimmy Kaufman slated to direct early in the new year. This magical story is set in an isolated fishing village inhabited by a cast of quirky characters.

Foreign rights to the show have been acquired by l.a.-based Atmosphere Entertainment, with u.s. rights going to Illinois-based Providence Entertainment. The budget is $5 million.

Taurus 7 producers Claudio Castravelli and Jean-Guy Despres have two additional mows in development as well as a development deal with Paramount Video on two Stephen King properties. Kaufman is currently in Vancouver directing two episodes of the revived mgm/Sci-Fi Channel/Trilogy series The Outer Limits, and is also contracted to direct a couple of episodes of the La Fete/Microtainment Plus teen sitcom Vampire High.

It’s been a very busy fall for Castravelli and crew. In the past two months, Taurus 7 wrapped the $5-million mow Christmas Diva, directed by Richard Schenkman and produced by Patricia Clifford and Castravelli.

The film is a musical update of the Scrooge Christmas classic and was produced for VH1, which has both u.s. and international rights. Leads include Vanessa Williams and rap artist Chili.

Castravelli also produced the Julie Dash-directed mow Love Song, a musical comedy set in modern-day Louisiana and commissioned by mtv in the u.s. Viacom International holds foreign rights.

Taurus 7 has Canadian rights to Christmas Diva, originated on 35mm film over 22 days, while Viacom Canada has Canadian rights on the $4.5-million Love Song.

Rounding out this fall’s busy slate, Castravelli line produced the $6.5-million Richard Friedenberg movie Snow in August, a location service shoot produced by Jake Eberts (Driving Miss Daisy, Dances With Wolves, The Education of Little Tree) of Blackbird Films in the u.k. and u.s. producer Lenny Young. It’s a heartwarming, immigrant story set in Brooklyn circa 1947. And while the film has a guaranteed first run on Showtime, a theatrical release is also envisioned.

‘The [mow] deals are never the same, but what we try to do is get a minimum of one-third of the budget out of the u.s. and then we add 25% from the tax credits, so the film is about 70% financed at that point. Also, foreign sales are relatively easier if all we’re missing is 30%,’ says Castravelli.

*New dates for Burly Vision

Ezra Soiferman of Perpetuum Productions reports production will begin in late January and go through to April on the second season of Burly Vision, a half-hour series dedicated to short films of all kinds broadcast on u.s. college cable channel Burly Bear Network.

Soiferman, who cohosts the show with a guest filmmaker, says the lineup for six new episodes remains a work in progress, but the general plan is to cover a number of u.s. film festivals and short film talent in the u.s., Canada and perhaps elsewhere.

‘We’re offering a valuable service to filmmakers. We license their movies and it’s great exposure for a new generation of filmmakers,’ says Soiferman.

Episodes are produced for under $15,000 and are paid for entirely by Burly Bear.

A highlight from the first round of Burly Vision was an episode co-hosted by Toronto actress/director Anais Granofsky. Granofsky played Lucy of Degrassi fame and recently shot her first feature film, Have Mercy.

The show is edited by Mel Hoppenhiem School of Cinema (Concordia University) student Mika Goodfriend. Goodfriend’s doc short Pipe Dreams was a finalist at this year’s Montreal World Film Festival.

Soiferman’s latest one-hour doc, Man of Grease, a profile of a colorful ‘greasy spoon’ operator, has been licensed to tvontario’s The View From Here and was picked up by Air Canada for its EnRoute screens. It’ll also screen at the Cinequest festival in San Jose, California in February.

Launched in 1994, New York-based Burly Bear dubs itself ‘the nation’s premiere college entertainment network.’ It was acquired in ’97 by Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video, and puts the accent on reality-based shows (as well as music and comedy), one way or another reflective of college life. The brand has been extended to the Internet with Burlybear.com.

Burly Bear’s programs currently reach five million college students at more than 564 u.s. colleges and universities. The network has been quick to seize programming opportunities at the growing number of campuses with satellite, cable and ‘plug-n-play’ dorm room capacity. The network says more than 60% of the college audience has broadband access. Former nfl and mtv marketing executive Howard Handler is Burly Bear’s ceo. Danny Ameri is vp programming.

*Letters of Love and War

Recently relocated to Ottawa, filmmaker Sabrina Matthews’ first film is the 50-minute documentary A Time of Love and War, an intimate story of two women set against sweeping historical changes.

More than a decade ago, Matthews traveled to Nicaragua where she met a politically active woman called Martha Aguilar, a member of the Sandinista Youth movement. The two women subsequently conducted an 11-year correspondence (pre e-mail era, says the director) before Matthews decided to return to the war-torn nation with a video camera.

The story that unfolds is both personal and political, ‘a testament to the solidarity’ between the two women. In the filmmaker’s words, ‘The courage that it takes to continue day after day is not considered heroic, but it is worth as much. I believe that it is often women who have this strong patience.’

The film was shot in Nicaragua and Montreal by dop Stefan Nitoslawski and produced by Michelle Smith and Malcolm Guy of Productions Multi-Monde. Support for the $60,000 production came from the Canada Council, the National Film Board, sodec and specialty channel wtn. The distrib is Cinema Libre.

Matthews is in early development on a new project concerned with water and conservation issues.

*Keesal’s Jack & Ella

Jack & Ella, writer/director Brenda Keesal’s first feature film, deals with themes such as tolerance, multiculturalism and identity.

The film opens as a black man crashes his car into a vehicle driven by a white female. A riot ensues and wild truths are confronted before the thirtysomething pair fall in love and move on to the big house with the white picket fence.

Henri Pardo plays Jack, Amy Sloan is Ella and Naomi Levine is their special friend. The film’s producer is Vito Balenzano (Fishtales, Lost & Found).

Keesal first came to attention with the daring festival short Wanker.

Balenzano says the entire film was shot over 22 days last month in mini-dv/pal (Canon XL-1, 25 fps) format for transfer to 35mm film. The close to $500,000 budget includes producer and performer deferrals.

A big break came when dop Yves Belanger signed on. Belanger and Keesal had hoped to work together since they were students at Concordia University’s film school. Marlo Miazga is editing on a Lightworks at Main Film. David Pelletier was the production designer.

Funding sources on Jack & Ella include the Canada Arts Council and Quebec’s Ministry of Culture and Communications. Telefilm Canada and sodec provided development support. TMN-The Movie Network, Super Ecran and cfcf-tv, the ctv affiliate in Montreal, have made purchase offers once the film is completed. Other contributions came from actra, Mel Hoppenheim and Michel Trudel of Mel’s Cite du Cinema, Main Film and videotape manufacturer Maxell.

Balenzano is looking for a Canadian distribution deal and finishing funds from sodec.

The producer has obviously caught the movie bug: ‘Next time I’d like to raise more money,’ says Balenzano. ‘I’d like to be able to pay people more. You can only ask for help so many times.’

*Future film action

Coming stcvq film action includes the Denis Chouinard feature L’Ange de Goudron. It’s being prepped in two blocks through to Jan. 26, with principal photography scheduled from Jan. 29 to March 16. The cinematographer is Guy Dufaux. Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal of Max Films are the producers.

K-19 Films Prod. and director Kathryn Bigelow are slated to shoot the submarine drama K-19, The Widowmaker from February to May. Cast includes Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Producers include Joni Sighvatsson, Chris Whitaker and Steven Charles Jaffe. Other parties associated with the film are Jake Eberts and u.k.-based Intermedia Films principals Guy East and Nigel Sinclair. pm is Micheline Garant.

Last year, Bigelow was in Nova Scotia to shoot Weight of Water, starring Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley and Sarah Polley.

Ben Affleck is the star of the Phil Alden Robinson-helmed drama The Sum of all Fears, a Paramount Pictures feature adapted from the Tom Clancy novel. Producers are Mace Neufeld and Stratton Leopold for Soaf Films. Alain Gagnon is upm. Art director supervisors include Andrew Neskoronny and Claude Pare. Preproduction ends Feb. 9, with filming starting Feb. 12.

The new Jean Beaudin (Souvenirs intime) thriller Le Collectionneur preps six weeks from Jan. 15 to March 2, with principal photography to go in early March. Producers are Christian Larouche and Ginette Petit of Films Cinepix. *