Vancouver: Zacharia Farted, a locally made road movie that created a lot of buzz during the Vancouver International Film Festival, has been invited to screen at the American Film Institute’s Los Angles International Film Festival on Oct. 23. It is scheduled to screen in the historic Mann’s Chinese Theater.

The rich film – about two buddies who go on a quest to find the identity of a man in a remote grave site – offers a lot on its plate: comedy, pathos, and, of course, farting dogs.

The feature was finished only eight weeks before its festival opening and, at press time, writer/producer/actor Colin Cunningham was taking calls from distributors.

*New on the film list

The pilot of potential cbc series These Arms of Mine goes before cameras in Vancouver Oct. 20-30 and will have a day of production in Toronto Nov. 1 or 2.

The urban drama about a long-distance love affair features Shauna Mcdonald, Stuart Margolin and Babz Chula. If the series gets greenlit, Mcdonald’s character will relocate from Toronto to Vancouver.

* Send in the Clowns, a one-hour documentary about ‘divorce, courage and stand-up comedy,’ is in production until Oct. 27 and will air on Vision tv and Baton affiliates in the spring.

Produced by Leonard Terhoch and Elizabeth Walker of Fast Forward Productions, the documentary follows Vancouver drama teacher Brenda Leadlay as she takes a stand-up comedy course to help deal with her divorce.

* Mini-budget made-in-Vancouver feature Peroxide Blond – about a woman having difficulty finding love – goes into production Nov. 2 through to Nov. 20. The production budget is set at $91,000 for the romantic comedy by producer Claudette Rowe of Swing Time Productions and writer/director/costar Andrew Van Slee. Tanya Reid and Vikki Gurdas also star.

* Spooky House, an independent u.s. feature overseen by Pacific Motion Pictures, is a children’s movie starring Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future). With production running Nov. 2 through Dec. 11, the film is about a reclusive magician whose career and life fell apart when his assistant-wife disappeared for good during a routine. In the story, a young boy tries to become his friend.

* And Can of Worms, a new mow for Disney Channel, also goes to camera Nov. 2. In the film, yet to be cast, a young teenager broadcasts a plea asking for aliens to take him away and he gets more than he bargained for. It wraps Dec. 4.

*Happy New Year

The big features are firming up for work in the new year.

Duets, with an estimated budget of $5 million to $10 million, begins in December. Called a comedy love story, Duets is for Touchstone Pictures. At one time it was to star Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt (when they were romantically linked offset), but a new male lead is to be cast. The feature will be directed by Bruce Paltrow.

Sylvester Stallone’s new psycho-thriller action picture – his first in Vancouver since he made Rambo iv in 1985 – is set to go in January. Titled Detox, the Universal film is about a cop who, while taking a retreat from his traumatic life, finds more trauma.

Also in January, the five-month build begins for Toddlers, the big-budget Paramount feature with Eddie Murphy, which will begin shooting in the late spring at The Bridge Studios.

In the comedy, Murphy and his costar – could be John Goodman – crash their plane in a world of giants where they are treated like children.

*Trade Forum pitchers

Students of the National Screen Institute pitched their nascent projects to a panel of industry veterans on the first day of the 13th annual Trade Forum, held in conjunction with the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Vancouver’s Deborah Peraya (Kino Zoom Productions) was one of the more successful of the four presenters with her comedy feature Soul Mates, the story of a woman who gains control of the Devil’s soul.

Assessing the pitches were u.s. producers Susan Merzbach (Ransom, Restoration) and Larry Estes (Smoke Signals), Vancouver distributor Mary-Pat Gleeson of Red Sky Entertainment and program buyer Diane Boehme of CHUM Television.

Like the other presenters, Peraya was honing her pitch in the pursuit of money. And hers was the only pitch to solicit an invitation to talk further – this one from Gleeson.

Also pitching was Veronica Alice Mannix, a Vancouver-based documentary producer (Eldorado Film Production), with a one-hour investigation called The Whistle Blowers.

The other two presenters already had development money from A-Channel and other funders.

Director Robert Cuffley and producer Caroline McMaster (Chaos, a Film Company) of Edmonton pitched the dramatic feature Nothing Feels Good, about a 16-year-old girl with a flair for storytelling and a troubled relationship with her brother.

Last to pitch was Calgary’s Nancy Laing (Earth to Sky Productions), who had a script for a dramatic feature called Jet Boy, a bleak story about an abused boy and his relationship with a gruff detective.

*Been there, done that

The Vancouver-based producers of the successful art-house indie Kissed are executive producing a new feature film that began production in Montreal Oct. 16.

Sweethearts of the World is a project by codirectors Matt Bissonnette and Steven Clark and producer Sylvia Wilson of Montreal’s Frustrated Films Inc. The narrative follows a pair of star-crossed lovers and what happens after they meet during a tragic drug store holdup.

Boneyard Film Company producer Jessica Fraser says Boneyard – including Fraser, Dean English and Lynn Stopkewich – was approached to oversee the production because of its experience doing ‘commando shoots’ like Kissed.

The budget for Sweethearts is under $500,000.

*Quick tempo

Business is heating up at Cadence Entertainment, which has two features new in theaters and another in post.

Kitchen Party, which debuted at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival, opened theatrically in Toronto and Calgary (through Cineplex Odeon) this month. Rupert’s Land, which debuted in festivals this year, will open theatrically in Toronto and Vancouver (through Red Sky Entertainment) on Oct. 30. And Tail Lights Fade, the newest Canadian road movie, is set for completion by the end of December.

Other producers doing quick work include Loretta Todd, whose Life and Times biography on actor/humanitarian Chief Dan George – Today is a Good Day – was able to include a last-minute interview with Little Big Man costar Dustin Hoffman just prior to the documentary debuting at the Vancouver festival Oct. 6.

According to publicist Gloria Davies, Hoffman finally agreed to the interview on the Sunday, his segment was added Monday, and the video finished Tuesday morning before the screening that night.

Today is a Good Day airs on the cbc Oct. 19.

*Force of nature

Vancouver’s Force Four Productions is back in the studio with a second season of 26 half-hours of You, Me and the Kids, a parenting series for wtn. The series – which blends documentary with drama – is distributed by Forefront Releasing.

Force Four’s Life and Times installment on Terry Fox aired on the cbc Oct. 12 and its special Grizzlies, which has already aired on Discovery, will be broadcast on cbc in November.