Riding on the success of Such A Long Journey, which has taken in Canadian box office receipts of over $380,000 since opening Feb. 26, The Film Works plans to focus its efforts on bigger-budget feature film production.

While the Toronto-based production company previously concentrated on tv movies such as The Arrow and The Planet of Junior Brown, co-chairman Victor Solnicki says the plan is to shoot three to four films per year in the $10-million to $15-million range. While Film Works’ previous features were all capped at the $4-million level, Solnicki says the company now has the track record to bring u.s. and international distributors on board early in development and finance larger projects.

Film Works has an output deal with new Toronto television distribution company Critical Mass Releasing to handle international presales and foreign distribution of its films.

Away, a property originally developed by Film Works as a four-hour movie, is being revamped for the big screen. The budget will be in the $15-million range and cbc and Ireland’s rte are on board to take tv rights.

Based on the novel by Jane Urquhart and adapted by Vancouver screenwriter Linda Svendsen, Away is the tale of three generations of women and begins in 1840s Ireland when a young girl finds a sailor washed ashore with the tide whom she eventually follows to Canada. Principal photography is scheduled for next winter and Film Works is currently finalizing an agreement with a u.k. coproducer.

Two projects are in development with playwright Ariel Dorfman’s North Carolina-based company. Widows, based on a novel by Dorfman, is a political drama, and Paradise ii, scripted by Dorfman and his son Rodrigo, is a futuristic thriller in the $20-million to $25-million range. Dorfman’s screenplay credits include Death and the Maiden, directed by Roman Polanski.

An $8-million joint venture with Tor Production of Poland, Julie Walking Home is set for production this August in Toronto, Poland and Russia. Holly Hunter is keen to take the leading role in the film, to be directed by Agnieshzka Holland (Washington Square). The screenplay is written by Holland and Canadian Arlene Sarner (Peggy Sue Got Married).

Montreal’s Equinox (Compagnie France Film) has taken Canadian rights, and tv rights have been presold to TMN-The Movie Network, Superchannel and Super Ecran in Canada as well as conventional and cable stations in Poland. Sony Pictures Classics has placed an offer on the table for American distribution, says Solnicki, who will produce with Paul Stephens.

In addition to its larger productions, Solnicki says Film Works intends to continue to nurture up-and-coming directors working on lower-budget projects.

A $6.7-million first feature from Heather McDonald titled In Troubled Waters will be coproduced with Elaine Frontaine of Fred Berner Films, New York. McDonald, based in New York, penned the script in which an aging patriarch afflicted by Alzheimer’s Disease befriends a young black boy. Donald Sutherland will lead the cast. Myriad Pictures is the foreign distributor.

The shoot is scheduled for late summer in New Brunswick where Film Works is embarking on a partnership in a film studio set to begin construction this summer. A joint venture with local producers Bruce Dennis and Barry Cameron, the Millbrook Atlantic Studios in Fredericton, n.b. will house a 180-foot-by-100-foot soundstage, training facilities, a lodge for crew and office space for production companies on a 40-acre lot owned by Dennis. Casablanca Sound & Picture and PS Production Services plan to set up shop at the centre.

The initial construction of the soundstage is budgeted at $2 million. In addition to private investment and funding from the provincial government, the partners are awaiting a decision from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency on a $500,000 interest-free loan to lock the financing.

Love Come Down, Clement Virgo’s follow-up to The Planet of Junior Brown, has been handed a six-figure u.s. distribution advance from Unipix. International rights to the film have been picked up by Myriad and France Films has taken Canada. The $3-million film will be coproduced by Film Works and Conquering Lions (a Toronto company formed by Virgo and Damon D’Oliveira).

Written by Virgo, the drama follows two brothers coming to terms with their dysfunctional family and is set against the comedy and music clubs of Toronto. Shooting begins this July.

Another new direction for the company, Film Works is set to make its first foray into animation. In development with Ottawa-based Amberwood Studios is Wild Swans. The script is based on a Hans Christian Andersen story adapted by Sujith Varughese, whose credits include the Fraggle Rock kids’ series.

Also penned by Varughese, The Talespinners is a combined live-action/animated kids’ series to be coproduced by Film Works and the National Film Board’s ACI East division in Montreal. The series features an imp named Merton, one of many otherworldly talespinners who gather stories and send them into people’s imaginations. Merton finds himself trapped on Earth and unable to return home until he has given away all his stories.

On the television front, Granada tv is negotiating with Film Works to coproduce a u.k. format of Witness To Yesterday, the History Television series originated by Patrick Watson which casts actors in roles of historical figures. The series would air on Channel 4.

A tv movie in development with the cbc, J.J. Harper is based on the true story of the killing of native leader J.J. Harper by a Winnipeg policeman in 1998. Tomson Highway has finished the first draft and a Manitoba coproducer will be attached

Film Works is also exec producing a half-hour documentary series, Working Animals, based on real-life stories of working animals – from performing whales to dogs sniffing out smuggled drugs. The series is being developed for Discovery Canada and produced by Kathleen McDonald .