The Film Works (The Arrow, Such a Long Journey) has joined forces with veteran Canuck comedy producer/director/writer Perry Rosemond’s The Rosemond Company to form Sitcom Inc.

The specialized company, which will produce and develop comedy shows and operate out of Film Works’ Toronto offices, is close to finalizing a coproduction arrangement with u.s. comedy production/management heavyweight Brillstein Grey (Larry Sanders, Newsradio), says Victor Solnicki, Film Works cochairman.

The Brillstein Grey agreement will be used on projects ‘we think will work on both sides of the border,’ says Solnicki.

Indigenously, Sitcom Inc.’s The Consulate General, a series about a British consul’s posting in Toronto, is in development with the cbc and is intended as a Canada/u.k. coproduction.

The sitcom, which will blend British and North American humor, is created by Perry and Brit Eugene Ferguson. Granada Television will most likely be the The Consulate General’s u.k. partner.

Sitcom Inc. is also finalizing a deal for an additional comedy pilot with another Canadian network, says Solnicki.

As to the timing of the new arm, Solnicki says he expects more broadcast shelf space to be available for Canadian productions following the ruling from the crtc’s Canadian Television Policy Review.

‘Hope springs eternal,’ says the production veteran.

Solnicki and Perry last partnered on the sitcom Starting from Scratch, starring Bill Daley, for Taft Entertainment and World Vision, which ran in u.s. syndication.

Perry, who is repped by Brillstein Grey and has worked on both sides of the border, is best known as the originator and producer of Canada’s best-known sitcom, King of Kensington.

*Norstar resurfaces

The production company attached to veteran producer Peter Simpson’s latest production, The Highwayman, which shoots in Toronto Nov. 15 to Dec. 19, has a familiar sounding name – Norstar Filmed Entertainment.

Simpson reports that following the sale of his roughly 200-film Norstar Entertainment library to Alliance last year, the name Norstar was included as part of the deal. But in the wake of the Alliance Atlantis merger, Simpson was able to get back the Norstar moniker at no cost.

‘Alliance was nice enough to give the name back,’ says Simpson, who recently produced two films, Grizzly Falls and Blackheart, under the appellation Landed Eagle Entertainment before changing the prodco’s name to Norstar Filmed Entertainment.

‘It really was a library sale, and they realized after, in terms of taking the name, that there was really no reason to retain it because they were not going to run it as a separate brand,’ he says.

‘It’s associated with me and we kept all the development projects.’

The Highwayman is described as a ‘black comedic road movie’ and stars Callum Keith Rennie (Last Night, Hard Core Logo), Lou Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman) and Laura Harris (The Faculty), along with Jason Priestley (Love and Death On Long Island), who is also an executive producer on the $4.5-million film.

Priestley has been attached to The Highwayman for roughly two years and has been instrumental in getting it in front of the camera, says Simpson.

‘During this time, while there have been a lot of changes in my life with the Norstar thing and other investors, Jason has remained steadfastly loyal to the project and helped get it financed and facilitated,’ says Simpson. ‘He’s been a very valuable piece of production manpower for me.’

Keoni Waxman will direct the star-studded production from Richard Beattie’s script. Simpson will produce.

Lions Gate Films president Jeff Sackman is also an exec producer on the project and Lions Gate has u.s. rights and will handle foreign sales. Behaviour will distribute in Canada.

Next on Simpson’s to-do list is an epic $35-million feature examining Generals Wolfe and Montcalm’s battle on the Plains of Abraham. Titled Fields Of Fire and scripted by British writer Allan Scott, the project began life as a miniseries in development with the cbc.

‘It’s my personal millennium project,’ says Simpson, referring to the cbc’s own epic millennium documentary project on the history of Canada.

Simpson is hopeful Fields of Fire will be produced in the summer of ’99 as a coproduction, most likely with u.k. and French partners. Behaviour has expressed interest in worldwide rights.

Pointing out that the story of the nation-shaping battle in which the British defeated the French has never been more relevant (‘It’s the foundation of Canadian politics’), Simpson says he hopes to snare a high-profile Quebec director to helm Fields of Fire. An A-list cast will also be necessary to get the film financed, says Simpson.

‘I’m not committing myself to any other projects in ’99 until I see whether or not this is going to be a reality,’ he says.

Simpson dryly adds that he chose to include ‘Filmed’ in the Norstar Entertainment name because ‘it worked so well with PolyGram. Under the term PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, they’ve only built up $1 billion in losses over the last 10 years. It seemed to have worked for them – maybe it will work for me.’

*William F. Cooke’s Wings Of Gold

Toronto’s William F. Cooke Television Productions has secured the film and television rights to Heather Robertson’s book The Flying Bandit about Kenneth Leishman, an infamous bank robber who had a penchant for using airplanes as a getaway vehicle and mysteriously disappeared in 1979 after becoming a respected member of the community in Red Lake, Ont.

Cooke plans to produce the story as a television movie titled Wings Of Gold.

Principal photography is slated for February 1999.

*Buchbinder misses film openings

Composer David Buchbinder was touring Scandinavia with his band The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band and missed the simultaneous openings of the two films which marked his first scoring attempts.

Opening in Toronto on lucky Friday, Nov. 13 was Jerry and Tom (Lions Gate Films), directed by Saul Rubinek, and The Fishing Trip (Mongrel Media), directed by David’s brother Amnon Buchbinder.

*Prepping Without A Word

The Franchise Films production Without A Word is expected to shoot in Toronto beginning in January. Other u.s. productions casing t.o. include A Map Of The World and Mean Streak, a cable movie shooting Nov. 18-Dec. 23 and produced by local service provider Roadhouse Productions.