Marking what some say is its biggest miniseries production to date, Alliance Atlantis Communications will begin shooting a version of Joan of Arc for cbs in Prague next month, with director Christian Duguay at the helm.

Sources say part of the miniseries will be shot in Canada, and that the production will qualify as Cancon. No Canadian broadcaster has joined cbs in licensing the production. aac officials would offer no further details. Casting is a work in progress.

Brunton’s Donnellys film may get CBC green light

vigilance, a project from producer Colin Brunton (Highway 61, Roadkill, Rude, Cube) and his company Mainline Creative about the infamous massacre of a family of Irish settlers that took place in Ontario during the 1800s, has been accepted for development with the cbc.

With a myriad of juicy story details to work from, the Donnellys project has long been a labor of love for Brunton, Mainline partner Allan Magee and writer Hugh Graham, and now it appears the project may finally go before the cameras next year as a cbc movie, with Brunton directing.

Brunton and Graham are currently hunkering down on a new draft of the script, to be produced on a budget of roughly $3 million, while casting, location, and coproduction details are being finalized.

In terms of casting, Brunton is thinking big – mentioning actors Pete Postlethwaite and Brenda Fricker as possible leads. ‘More than anything I’d like to get a couple of good names in there,’ he says.

The project could possibly end up as an international coproduction as some Irish producers have expressed interest in Vigilance.

As to location, Brunton says a coproduction deal with a prodco from another province may be struck in order to access financing from a provincial agency.

‘Ideally, I’d love to shoot it in Ontario,’ he says, ‘but given the financing, there’s a possibility it could be in another province because there’s no support here anymore.’

Not liking the term mow, Brunton says he is trying to convince the cbc to call it a ‘feature film for television.’ He says if all goes well, the film’s cbc broadcast premiere could be followed by a theatrical and festival run.

A potential addition to the usual collection of towering obstacles that need be overcome in getting any project on screen could be pressure from the Roman Catholic Church to stop the project. Brunton says the filming of Vigilance may be opposed by the Church because ‘they [the Church] are indicted in the film as one of the main causes of the massacre.’

Besides the Donnellys movie, Brunton says he and Magee are developing a slew of other film and tv projects at the year-old Mainline but it’s too early for details.

Brunton will be offering his popular Guerrilla Filmmaking 101 workshop Dec. 5 and 6 in Toronto. The course offers insights on how to make a first feature and includes guest speakers, clips and a 100-page booklet. Brunton says more workshops will be offered in the new year.

*Shamata Getting In

A one-act play by legendary Canadian actor/writer Mavor Moore will serve as the inspiration for a short film from director Jesse Shamata of Ink Monkeys Film Company, slated for a March ’99 shoot in Toronto.

Shamata and his father, actor/writer Chuck Shamata, approached Moore earlier this year and were successful in obtaining the film rights to the two-character, half-hour work.

‘He was delighted to give us the rights,’ says Jesse Shamata, who adds that the short adaptation will coincide with Moore’s 80th birthday, approaching next year.

The drama of Getting In is found in an interview situation where one character questions the other as to his fitness to ‘get in.’ What or where the character is trying to ‘get in’ is never explained. ‘It could be heaven or hell, it could be a retirement home,’ says the director.

While few other details (including a producer, and budget) have been nailed down, the short will certainly feature a stellar cast, with Chuck Shamata and John Neville taking on the two roles.

Jesse Shamata is currently going after Canadian, u.k. and American financing for Getting In, which will shoot on 35mm film and is planned as a tv half-hour.

He and Ink Monkey partner Daniel Hawkes are still waiting for the green light from MuchMusic on their behind-the-scenes-at-a-music-video-company show, Flash Frames. If it gets the go-ahead, Flash Frames would mark the first live-action series foray for chum’s Much.

*Final call for Sprockets

Feature film submissions for the second Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children are due by Dec. 4, while the deadline for short live-action or animated films is Jan. 15, 1999.

Works should be on 35mm or 16mm, appropriate for ages ranging from four to 16, in any language as long as there is an English subtitled print available, and should not have been broadcast or theatrically released in Canada prior to the festival, which runs April 10-18, 1999.

For more info call (416) 934-3281

*Fest for Human Rights

Joining the crowded slate of Toronto film festivals is the first annual Toronto Human Rights Film and Video Festival, running Dec. 11-13 at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall.

‘Fifty years ago this year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations,’ says project coordinator Arif Noorani. ‘Unfortunately, in today’s world some people are still denied their basic human rights.’

Opening the festival is Paulina, a feature by Vicky Funari and Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, which examines the life of a Mexican woman who as a child was traded away for land rights by her parents.

For more info call (416) 392-8675.