Winnipeg: Saskatoon-based Edge Entertainment has just completed a two-year corporate restructuring and concluded its first round of private placements for 2000.

Edge president David Doerkson says the recapitalization will allow the company to grow its operations, including developing new film projects through its production arm and building up the Canadian sales division through the acquisition of additional film and tv product. Doerskon says Edge plans to buy between 10 and 12 new projects this year.

Edge’s distribution arm will focus on tv and home video sales to the Canadian market. The company will no longer be selling directly to the international market, but instead will be negotiating multi-picture, multiyear output deals with distributors who will sell Edge product worldwide.

Edge has just signed a first-look deal to distribute new film and tv projects from Endless Entertainment of Vancouver, says Doerkson, who is also exploring similar opportunities with other Canadian producers.

Additionally, Edge will be opening an l.a. office in the coming year and looking to hire a business development executive for the branch.

The corporate restructuring also includes new staff. Lynda King joins Edge as cfo and vp finance and will oversee all aspects of the company’s day-to-day operations and financial activities. King’s background includes business consulting and financial management for sci-tec and income-tax specialization at kpmg.

Jeff Martel, former vp of Tri-Media Productions, will now be handling development and creative affairs at Edge.

Edge Productions’ development slate includes the cable features Night Class, the story of a disgruntled man who decides to take a night class and gets tangled up with a career criminal. The writer is Willem Wennekers and Don McCutcheon is directing. The foreign distributor of the $2-million picture is l.a.’s World International Network.

Dreamtime, a thriller in which a woman wronged in a heist plans a ‘payback’ to collect her money, is penned by Vincent Moncton and will be directed by Michael Storey. IFM Film Associates is distributing the $2-million cable feature.

The family action-adventure TV Witness, written by Jeff Martel and to be directed by Edmonton’s Martin Wood, revolves around a police detective who risks his and his daughter’s life to save a woman involved with the mob.

Porch Light Entertainment is distributing.

Edge is also developing the family theatrical feature The Impossible Elephant, scripted by Stargate head writer Robert Cooper.

*CBC divvies up regional cash

During the crtc’s consultations for the renewal of cbc’s licence last spring, producers in the regions outside Toronto and Montreal vented their frustration at the few opportunities to have their work seen on the pubcaster. In response, the Corp. redirected funds to all the regions so they could each produce a local series. In the Prairie provinces, calls have been put out to develop half-hour series for broadcast on the regional cbc outlets, with the possibility that the best of these shows will be taken on for national cbc broadcast.

Carl Karp, English tv programming director for cbc Manitoba and Saskatchewan, says in response to a call for half-hour series proposals for a 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. time slot, 27 projects were submitted from Manitoba producers and another 24 from Saskatchewan. Three Manitoba projects have been given development cash and two projects greenlit for development in Saskatchewan (between $30,000 and $50,000 in development funds is available per province).

A jury, which includes cbc’s Phyllis Platt as well as some non-cbc members, will choose one project in Manitoba and one in Saskatchewan to go to series through a regional cbc window. The final decision will be made in early February, says Karp. The cbc is offering a $15,000 per episode licence fee, plus facilities, equipment and services. The series will be broadcast in January 2001.

Karp says there is a chance that if Platt likes more than one project in each province, another could be picked up by the network.

The projects chosen for development in Manitoba include the 13 half-hour ‘anecdotal documentary series’ Storytellers, produced by Buffalo Gal Pictures’ Ian Hanford and written and directed by Shereen Jerett. Each episode will feature Manitobans telling stories on a specific topic, with subjects including their worst jobs, dating, road trips and their dogs.

Jerett says the stories range from the comedic to the sad to the outright bizarre and the series will show how people reveal themselves through storytelling.

Also on the Manitoba development slate is a half-hour sketch comedy series with the wordy title Mr. Edward Fitz Presents The Royal Lichtenstein Theatre Company. Coproduced by Cam Bennett and Robert Hardy, the series stars a seven-member comedy troupe who have performed together for the last five years in numerous live stage shows, including a tour of Western Canada with the Fringe Festival.

The show will be two-thirds sketch comedy segments shot on location throughout Winnipeg and one-third docusoap, providing a comedic behind-the-scenes look at the sketch comedy troupe itself and the highs and lows of landing their first tv series while still juggling their day jobs to pay the rent.

John Paizs (Crime Wave, Kids In The Hall, Top of the Food Chain) is directing.

The third team does not want to go public with its proposal – reputed to be a dramatic series set at a remote tv station in the North.

In Saskatchewan, the cbc development money has been offered to Minds Eye Pictures’ comedy series Stubble Jumpers, starring Saskatchewan comedian Brad Butt, and to Screwheads, produced by Westwind Pictures’ Michael Snook.

Screwheads stars the comedy troupe James and Kevin, who have had a comedy show on Cable Regina for a number of years and developed a cult following in Saskatchewan. They have also been featured in the linking segments of the Just For Laughs show produced for television in 1997.

James and Kevin (James Whittingham and Kevin Allardyce) are best known for their street-level comedy in which they devise characters and a scenario for themselves and head off to a local neighborhood where they play out the comedy and involve onlookers in their silly or bizarre antics. Each episode will also contain a sketch comedy component and a studio audience segment.

Tom Davidson is directing the pilot. His experience includes numerous commercials, documentaries and studio productions. Dan Redican, one of the original members of the Frantics and a story editor and supervising producer on Kids In The Hall, is creative producer on the show.

cbc Alberta is a bit further ahead in the game. Regional director Joe Novak says a call was put out for an arts and entertainment show several months ago, and The Barn Satellite Network, produced by Don Metz of Edmonton-based Aquila Pictures, has been chosen to go to series. The series celebrates Alberta music and humor and is hosted by Danny Hooper.

*Midcan servicing The Toy Castle

Winnipeg-based Midcan is providing the production services on Ottawa-based Sound Venture Productions’ preschool live-action series The Toy Castle.

The 26-part, half-hour series is based on the characters in The Tin Soldier, a one-hour ballet special produced by Sound Venture in 1992.

The Toy Castle uses ballet, mime and narration to tell the story of a group of toys which come to life each night after a young boy and girl tuck them away in their toy castle and fall asleep.

The performers are all dancers and are being cast out of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Broadcasters on the $2.75-million series are Treehouse tv and scn. tfo has first window in Canada on a French version. Decode Entertainment is distributing.

The executive story editor on the series is Nancy Trites Botkin. The choreographer is Timothy Spain. Sound Venture’s Katherine Jeans is directing with Michael Watt. Midcan’s Leslie Oswald is the line producer.

Sound Venture president Neil Bregman says he is bringing the shoot to Manitoba because of the Winnipeg Ballet and also to take advantage of the province’s film and tv tax credit.

The shoot begins March 20 for 10 weeks at an abandoned warehouse in Winnipeg.

*Winnipeg Film Group expands distribution

Winnipeg Film Group, a co-op which operates a distribution division that sells independent shorts and feature films to broadcasters and distributors around the world, is now the official distributor for Saskfilm Pool, a film co-op based in Regina.

Marlene James, distribution coordinator at Winnipeg Film Group, says in addition to repping films for international sales, she also submits films on behalf of filmmakers to festivals around the world.

If Winnipeg Film Group makes a sale, the co-op takes only a 30% cut.

Winnipeg Film Group is also looking to represent the films of co-ops in the Atlantic provinces.