They’re back.

Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice, codirectors, writers and stars of last year’s documentary Pitch, have signed a development deal with Toronto’s Red Giant for their feature comedy script Lost.

Vancouver’s Ranfilm principals Mort Ransen (Margaret’s Museum) and Raymond Massey (Whale Music) have signed on to produce Lost, which tells the story of a couple of twentysomethings from the tv generation (played by Hotz and Rice) who get lost in the wilderness.

A director has not been signed, although Rice and Hotz could cohelm the pic.

Red Giant partner Chris Wallace says his company along with Ranfilm are actively seeking private financing for the film, which could be budgeted anywhere between $3 million and $10 million.

Wallace says that although no presales have been made to distributors, he intends to approach some u.s. heavy hitters that he has worked with in the past through his cgi/animation/post/fx shop TOPIX/Mad Dog.

Telefilm Canada financing options may be explored for Lost, which hopes to begin principal photography in the fall, with Vancouver as the most likely location.

Rice reports that deals for Pitch have been made to five territories through sales agent Balfour Films and that television buys for the self-reflexive doc are pending with TMN-The Movie Network and Citytv.

Look for Red Giant to sign a production deal on an unnamed live-action television series in the near future.

– Atmos takes High Road

The director/writer/producer team of Felicia Francescut and Leslie Cote and their company Atmos Films have signed with Toronto’s High Road Productions to produce a one-hour documentary on eating disorders.

Francescut and Cote were able to garner High Road’s interest through a seven-and-a-half-minute reel outlining their plans to present five women’s personal stories and their battles with anorexia and/or bulimia.

While three of the subjects to be profiled are still dealing with their eating disorders, Francescut and Cote’s own stories of overcoming anorexia and bulimia will also be documented.

Francescut says the film will be shot on a variety of formats including 16mm film, Beta sp, Super 8 film and digital camcorder. The budget is currently $200,000, and High Road’s skill at navigating various public funding mechanisms will be utilized.

Pitching the project at the Banff Television Festival garnered strong interest from CBC Newsworld and tfo.

– Hyslop comes in from the cold

Between helming spots for Navigator Films, Toronto-based director/writer James Hyslop has completed shooting three one-hour documentaries for the Discovery Channel (Canada) series Forbidden Places, produced by Television Renaissance.

Two of the docs were shot in the Canadian Arctic. The first, Cold Warriors, shot in the Northwest Territories, chronicles a sovereignty operation by the assault troop of Edmonton-based Lord Strathcona’s Horse Royal Canadian and a local detachment of Canadian Rangers from Whale Cove, nwt.

Cold Warriors chronicles the exchange of skills and knowledge between the two groups as the soldiers are forced to brave temperatures of -50C and winds of over 70 km an hour during the mission.

A second crew, led by Hyslop, had to be called in when the first crew retreated to warmer climes to escape the subzero temperatures.

As the first civilians allowed to film life in the top-secret radar and surveillance post at Alert, nwt, Hyslop and cameraman Frank Vilasco ventured to the world’s most northern settlement to film The Frozen Chosen.

The doc examines living and working in the desolate outpost, accessible only by plane and resupplied twice a year by the Canadian military out of Thule, Greenland.

At its height during the Cold War, Alert had almost 300 military personnel stationed at the tip of Ellesmere Island, equipped with the most sensitive listening equipment in the world.

Completing Hyslop’s Forbidden Places three-pack was the harrowing shoot of the Canadian Forces’ Prairie Ram exercise, the largest live fire exercise undertaken by the military in 30 years. Nearly 5,000 soldiers took part in the Suffield, Alta. maneuvers, firing live ammunition and setting off land mines.

Being a naval officer ‘in a past life’ may explain Hyslop’s ability to document such subjects.

All three of the docs will run on this fall’s season of Forbidden Places and were shot over a seven- to 10-day period on a modest budget of around $100,000 each.

Aiken Scherberger of Television Renaissance is the series’ exec producer.

Hyslop is currently developing some additional doc projects as well as a feature version of his short film Blind Man’s Bluff.

– NFB’s Reel Diversity

The National Film Board’s Ontario Branch has created a $100,000 documentary calling card film competition for filmmakers of color.

The nfb will provide $100,000 toward the production of the winning documentary film, and private-sector sponsors are also contributing significantly. Casablanca Sound and Picture will be responsible for post sound, MPI Productions will handle online services and a broadcast licence from Vision tv will ensure proper exposure.

nfb producer Karen King is heading up the competition at the nfb’s Ontario production center and is inviting half-hour documentary proposals by Friday, July 31. The projects must come from applicants who identify themselves as a member of a visible minority, have at least one directing credit from any genre (excluding one-hour documentary for television), and have fewer than four credits as a documentary director.

The winner will be announced Aug. 13. For more info contact King at (416) 973-2235.

– Atlantis shoots Susann

Director Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Highway 61) is at the helm of the Atlantis Films mow The Jacquelin Susann Story for USA Network, shooting in Toronto June 7 to July 10.

Susann is best known as the author of Valley of the Dolls and will be played by Michele Lee (Knots Landing). Executive producers are Peter Sussman and Ed Gernon, along with Lee. Jan Peter Meyboom (The Newsroom) is producing. Susan Shipton (The Sweet Hereafter) is handling the edit.

– Niagara fest wraps for this year

The inaugural Niagara Falls Film Festival wrapped earlier this month, succeeding in carving out a niche for itself in the increasingly crowded fest landscape by programming classic older films.

The fest’s campy location as well as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, a disaster series, and a group of Canadian films dubbed ‘taxploitation’ films by festival producer Cam Haynes made for an eclectic lineup and experience.

On the sales front, the festival’s only premiere, the documentary Niagara: Thunder Of The Waters from writer/director Christopher Bessette and producer Greg Pharoah, has scored a distribution deal with Ralph Ellis of Toronto’s Keg Productions/Ellis Enterprises.