St. John’s-based Rink Rat Productions, whose feature Violet screened at last month’s 20th Atlantic Film Festival, has an ambitious slate of projects in development.

‘Most precious’ to producer Mary Sexton’s heart is Atlantic Blue, the story of the world’s largest oil rig, the Ocean Ranger, which sank off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in 1982, killing all 84 crew members on board.

Sexton says the huge rig was ill-equipped to handle an emergency situation such as the one faced by the crew on the day it went down.

‘There weren’t enough lifeboats and there weren’t enough lifejackets or survivor suits. It was just like what they said about the Titanic – they said it was unsinkable, too. Guess what, it went down like a cardboard box.’

The story, says Sexton, will be a fictional account of the actual event built around strong characters, which will be created on the word processor of the very able Rosemary House (director of Violet).

No word yet who will help to bring the tale to life as director. At one time, House was rumored to be at the helm of Atlantic Blue, but according to Sexton, the pair is looking at other directors to allow House to concentrate on writing the script. The two are also looking for an executive producer and Sexton says Rink Rat is in the market for coproduction partners.

‘We want to do a coproduction story because they are still drilling for oil in all of the seven seas,’ says Sexton. ‘It is a world story, not just a Newfoundland story.’

The two pitched the film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival’s Pitch This sessions. Although Atlantic Blue didn’t win the competition, Sexton received a great deal of favorable feedback on the project.

Development financing has already come in from CBC Atlantic, and Sexton has applied to the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation and Telefilm Canada to really get her ship sailing.

The budget, she predicts, will be somewhere in the $10-million range. ‘At first we thought we could do it for $3.9 million, but then we started to look at it, and to get the cast attached that we would like to get, it is going to be a lot more than that,’ says Sexton. ‘It’s a big project, and if it is going to be done right you have to spend money on it.’

She adds that if Atlantic Blue doesn’t fly as a feature, she might consider making it into a three-part miniseries.

Another project in the Sexton vault is an animated children’s series called The Wonder Bees, in development with St. John’s-based Digital D’Go and CBC Atlantic. The show follows five bumblebees that protect their hive and their honey from an onslaught of villains, including raccoons, the evil Crooked Crow and his equally foul-natured lackeys Roy and Flap.

Sexton says this is not a typical kids show in that it has a bit of edge to it, falling in the gray area between The Simpsons and The Care Bears series. She hopes to produce a 15-minute sample episode to take around to broadcasters and distributors. ‘People don’t look at paper,’ she says. She has applied to the usual suspects for additional development financing.

Other projects in the works include features Receiver’s Creed, Looped and Young Triffie.

*Hopkins’ Man Mountain

Independent producer/director/ writer John Hopkins is inching his way toward making a feature documentary about world-renowned robo-biologist Mark Tilden after some very good fortune came his way at last month’s Atlantic Film Festival.

Hopkins received the CBC Script Development Award and $12,000 for his script Man Mountain, a glimpse into the life of the eccentric but likable Mr. Tilden. Hopkins, who also received a Canada Council Award, a $20,000 grant, for his work thus far on the doc, really has to like his film’s subject – they are cousins.

After finishing production studies at Sheridan College, Hopkins established Square Deal Productions in Toronto, producing several dramatic films for cbc and Bravo! In order to make development dollars stretch further, he returned to Prince Edward Island, where he established Red Rock Films and began development on the feature-length Man Mountain, which will be produced under the banners of both companies.

He says the inspiration to make a film about Tilden came to him while he was out for a stroll during the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival.

Hopkins’ subject is one he is obviously quite familiar with, having grown up with Tilden and witnessed at a very young age the power of his cousin’s brain.

‘He has an amazing mind,’ says Hopkins. ‘Any spaceship that was in any of the programs on television, he could look at it and rebuild it to exact mathematical detail. He was sort of like a savant that way. It was amazing that he could actually do that, but he did.’

Hopkins has monitored Tilden’s progress with great interest. From his earliest inventions to his stay in the robotics department at the University of Waterloo, Tilden has put together a number of unusual contraptions. One of the most notable is a robotic snake designed to slither through the desert and set off land-mines before an unwitting human does.

For some, Tilden’s robotic playmates might seem as frightening as they are interesting.

‘His machines don’t use any processors,’ says Hopkins. ‘They are alive and thinking. It’s a strange thing to say about a machine.’

Hopkins will soon head off for Los Alamos, New Mexico, to visit his cousin and the robotics laboratory where he works. ‘I plan to hang out and be part of the scene so I can fit in and the people will be more comfortable with who I am before I bring a bunch of cameras in,’ he says. ‘If you want to go into a documentary with depth you really have to involve yourself.’

He will also visit Washington, d.c. to dig up some archival and stock footage on robots.

A budget for the film is not yet set, as Hopkins and Man Mountain executive producer Don Haig are holding out for what they deem to be an acceptable broadcasting deal. Hopkins says they have already received some offers, but none sufficient to allow them to make the film they think Man Mountain should be.

‘If you don’t aim high you never give yourself the chance to do it right, the way you envision it,’ says Hopkins. ‘I think the material can carry. It might even have theatrical possibilities. I guess I’m waiting for a broadcaster to get behind the project in a big way – someone who is going to let me do justice to the film in terms of the budget, but I think it is a film that will sell and that it will be worth the investment.’

*AFF’s Whittaker moves on

The Atlantic Film Festival rolled up the red carpet in Halifax last month after setting new attendance and box office records. aff’s executive director Gordon Whittaker says there were a number of increases in different areas this year, all of which contributed to the overall success of the festival’s 20th anniversary edition.

According to Whittaker, the festival saw a 15% increase in overall attendance and a 22% increase in box-office revenue. He says more Canadian directors screened their films at the festival than in any other year, and the closing-night crowd of 800 was the largest the festival has ever seen.

Yet even with all of these achievements, Whittaker is leaving the festival after four years as its executive director to accept the post of general manager at Halifax’s Helix Animation. He starts with Helix Nov. 6.

‘I’m looking forward to a new challenge and I thought it was a perfect time to make that move and go back to the private sector,’ says Whittaker. ‘The festival is financially stable. It has a developed and experienced staff. Its industry profile is at an all-time high and audiences are growing and loving it, so it is a good time for someone else to take it on.’

Whittaker expects the aff to name a new executive director by the holiday season. *