The veterans of the 1997 Banff Market Simulation are heading west again, aiming to further the projects they brought to the world television industry’s attention a year ago. All concur that stepping up to the pitching mound not only sparked some good ol’ festival buzz around their projects but also heightened their profiles as producers.

Hegan’s Deadline finds life in a coffin

When a producer pulled out of last year’s Market Simulation at the last minute, Pat Ferns called up Ken Hegan in Vancouver and asked him to pitch his feature-length comedy The Deadline in its place.

Perking up the tired crowd at the early morning pitch with clips from his previous short films and actors performing pieces from the script, Hegan was swamped by Canadian broadcasters who wanted to talk. He also picked up some overseas nibbles from financiers who told him to give them a call once the project was developed further.

Superchannel offered development money for a rewrite and the funds were matched by the B.C. Film Market Incentive Program. wic also came through with some script funding.

At Banff, Baton’s vtv offered Hegan the chance to write, direct and produce aardvark!, a mockumentary on the local theater scene which aired in November, providing the emerging producer with some crucial experience.

After a couple of rewrites on The Deadline, about a character obsessed with statistics on death, Hegan sent a copy of the script – in a black coffin – to new Vancouver distribution company Red Sky Entertainment.

At first they refused to open the coffin.

‘They thought it was a horror film,’ explains Hegan, but with a little persistence he got their development people to take a look inside and not long after signed a theatrical deal.

With a distributor behind The Deadline, TMN-The Movie Network offered a prelicence for Eastern Canadian pay-tv rights.

Some high-profile talent has been attached to the project to reel in buyers. Confirmed actors include Dean Haglund (who plays one of the Lone Gunmen on The X-Files), Ellie Harvie (Morticia in Fox’s upcoming The Addams Family), Brendan Beiser (Agent Pendrell on X-Files) and Gary Jones (Stargate).

The script calls for a passersby to get shot and killed by an assassin who misses his target, and Hegan decided Lee Majors, dressed in his 1970s Six Million Dollar Man tracksuit and walking his bionic dog, would be perfect for the cameo. After sending a copy of the script to Majors, he found a return message from the bionic man himself on his answering machine.

‘I thought, I can’t call back my childhood idol wearing my underwear,’ recalls Hegan, ‘so I put on a silk shirt and rang him back.’

Majors was quite amused by the script, he adds.

‘He said to me, `So Ken, you want to kill me off,’ and I said, `Lee, I want you to know I am such a huge fan of your work that this is going to hurt me far more than it is going to hurt you.’ ‘

A new draft of the script has Majors wearing the back brace he dons for his infomercial appearances.

World rights are available, and with $200,000 of the $1.4-million budget already raised (an application has been sent to Telefilm), Hegan is hitting Banff looking for an international distributor and foreign presales. Meetings have been set up with the bbc, which wants to take a look at the script, German distributor Taurus Film, and Benelux territories distributor Sydney Nater Distribution.

Two years ago at Banff, Hegan met up with Horst Mueller from zdf, who expressed interest in the initial concept of The Deadline, and with a well-developed package, Hegan hopes to snag a German presale this year.

Hegan also plans to corner hbo, Alliance Releasing (international sales division), and Lions Gate’s l.a. delegation.

He says the u.k.’s Channel 4 is increasingly waiting to see finished films before signing deals, as is the case in the u.s.

The shoot has been skedded for Sept. 21. Hegan and Maureen Prentice of Voice of Treason Productions are producing, Linda Guns (Dirty, Live Bait) is executive producer and Danny Nowak (The Big Hit, Hard Core Logo) is dop.

Smith’s Eccentrics

A little over a year ago, Toronto’s Megan Smith picked up the rights to the book Eccentrics, a breakthrough study on sanity and strangeness from u.k. author Dr. David Weaks and American Jamie James, and began developing a doc that would take a camera into the world of eccentric characters and offer an intimate view of their lives and passions. The doc would be humorous and engaging. Sources were abundant – Smith had access to Dr. Weaks’ database of eccentrics around the world.

But just before Banff, a case of stage fright overcame the emerging Toronto producer and she backed out of the Market Simulation. A call from Ferns cajoled her into reconsidering and she pitched the project as a two-hour special or three one-hours budgeted at us$250,000 to us$300,000 per hour.

bbc, ctv, a&e and Arte were all supportive at the Market Simulation. But when it came to getting the green light from the top brass at these networks, things hit a snag.

‘There is no doubt it would have been easier if I were more established,’ she admits.

The bbc’s Paul Hayman said he could not get the project past the controller; a&e had committed development money to a project on geniuses which they felt was too similar; and although Arthur Weinthal at ctv supported the project at Banff, Smith says it fell through the cracks with the upheaval and restructuring during the Baton-ctv deal.

Smith came away from Banff with the advice that the ambitious, international scope of the project (eccentrics are a phenomenon found in all cultures) had a better chance of coming to fruition if she aligned herself with a foreign partner who could provide the credibility and additional support to attract broadcasters.

She also realized that while broadcasters all have different tastes, her project had an advantage in the competitive documentary environment. All the channels, she says, were looking for projects with a pop culture appeal, backed by substance.

‘They want projects they can promote but are more than just window dressing.’

Raymont’s Sacred Places

Sacred Places is Peter Raymont’s ‘dream project,’ but amidst a busy production schedule on the second cycle of History Television’s Scattering of Seeds and a new hockey series, the seasoned Toronto doc producer hasn’t had much time to turn his attention to the project he brought to Banff last year with coproducer Leslie Wiener of Gedeon Programmes in France.

Sacred Places was pitched as a 6 x 1-hour doc series exploring ancient areas like Easter Island and Stone Circle in Ireland, locations which for centuries have been thought to hold mystical power. The $500,000 per hour series would investigate why these places were considered to have these powerful energies and if current high-tech scientific study of these sites could shed any light on the phenomenon.

At the Market Simulation, one delegate from a&e responded cynically to the program, says Raymont, adding that the specialty’s Leonard Nimoy series was too similar. However, a&e’s Bill Harris approached Raymont after the session and said he loved the idea and they should talk when the show was in late development.

Channel 4’s religious programmer Peter Grimsdale said if a strong human character provided a thread through the program he would be interested, says Wiener. France’s Le Cinquieme expressed its support of the project and Reader’s Digest wants to release the program for the home video market, she adds.

Australia’s abc is aiming for a coproduction deal with the producers and is waiting for a developed proposal.

But the busy producers are biding their time on this one. They will meet this month to discuss their game plan and a research effort is planned for later this year.

Following Banff, Raymont picked up a letter of interest from Vision tv and applied for official coproduction treaty status at Telefilm, where he landed some development money.

France’s cnc offers development funds for Canada/France coproductions as long as a letter of intent from broadcasters in both countries is attached. France 3 delivered the letter for its territory.

Through the two agencies, over $100,000 in development money has been raised and the next step is to travel to the various spots and seek out the local people and scientists through which they can tell the story.

The difficulty of programming six one-hours is leading the producers to consider a six or 13 half-hour format. A 13 half-hour series is the format Le Cinquieme wants but France 3 does not program half-hours and abc prefers one-hours.

Weiner says they will decide which broadcasters they want to work with this month and the project will be developed to fit their slots.