Output deals may not grow on trees, but anything can happen in a Canadian distribution marketplace controlled by three main players. And while Maple Pictures may be third on that totem pole – underneath Alliance Films and E1 Entertainment – its Canadian market focus and key relationships with U.S. suppliers give the young, feisty and nubile distrib a certain competitive edge.

‘We are exclusively looking for Canadian rights – all Canadian rights [theatrical, online, TV, ancillary, airlines, armies…] – when we do a deal,’ says Maple co-president Brad Pelman. ‘Our competitors go out with a multi-territory strategy, which involves several parties and gets more complex.’

But because the U.S. and Canada are so tied, he explains, it’s clean and easy to do a Canadian deal, leaving the producer open to taking the film out internationally.

‘CAA, William Morris… these guys call us for their independent producers. They want to sell off to Canada because of the market value and because the Canadian price is a dovetail,’ says Pelman.

But the independent players are only one part of the grandiose picture for Maple, which spun off from Lionsgate Entertainment in 2005 as an independently owned and operated Canadian distribution house with a very fruitful output deal that sees them retain all the Canadian rights to the mother ship’s film and TV titles.

After bringing on Alliance distribution alumni and former U.S. film exec Jim Sherry last year, Maple also landed a plum output deal with Miramax (after a 14-year relationship with Alliance), bringing its feature film library to a total of more than 9,000 titles. (Sherry stepped down earlier this summer, but continues to consult for the company.)

Taking the lead from Lionsgate, Pelman says the company has an eye toward future, significant output deals. ‘We want to be the next-generation major indie studio in Canada,’ he asserts.

Pelman and Maple co-president Laurie May completed a takeover of Lionsgate’s Canadian management operations almost five years ago, in an effort to create a wholly Canadian-owned company that could lawfully capitalize on Canadian tax incentives. While Maple is privately run and equally owned by the two former Lionsgate execs, Lionsgate maintains a minority interest and board presence.

The Toronto-based company, which also has offices in Vancouver and a staff of 40, releases upwards of 30 pictures each year – 12 to 15 from Lionsgate, six to eight from Miramax, and the rest independents, like The Cure and The Hurt Locker.

The TIFF factor

At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Maple is premiering five features – The Boys Are Back, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Precious, Daybreakers and the much-heralded film The Men Who Stare at Goats – with varying degrees of star power and indie appeal.

TIFF is important to distributors like Maple because it is a built-in publicity engine in their own backyard. It’s by no coincidence that Maple is releasing all five of the films showcasing at TIFF between two to four months following the fest.

‘The North American press machine is out in full force… it’s the perfect storm for a film, the perfect junket,’ says Pelman.

But the former Lionsgate exec is wary about using TIFF audience responses as a real measure.

‘They are extremely gracious and applaud every film, which is not representative of the everyday marketplace,’ he says. This, he fears, gives filmmakers and producers a false sense of security, which can make them more difficult to negotiate with.

In addition to the launch-pad effect, the festival circuit is also still an important avenue for acquisitions, particularly for Maple, which looks to TIFF to fill out its release schedule.

But it’s not always peaches and cream between festival and distribs. Until a new agreement between CADFE members and the festival was recently struck, the distributors’ relationship with TIFF has been a strained one. Costs associated with screening a film at the festival had been increasingly prohibitive and distributors across the board have been demanding better value.

Because distributors don’t participate in the festival box office, they have been asking for more equitable terms. ‘Terms,’ says Pelman, ‘that better reflect our investment.’ Pelman says that Maple is satisfied with the new arrangement.

Bring on new media

But the festival is only one of many interesting conduits for a distrib that covets Apple and Xbox as key retail partners.

‘iTunes is the greatest thing since sliced bread,’ says Pelman, who points out that Young People Fucking, to which Maple holds Canadian rights, is the number one downloaded film on iTunes.

While non-traditional distribution outlets have not eclipsed the value of traditional retail, they allow for greater consumer choice and accessibility. ‘It’s kind of a spaghetti-on-the-wall approach,’ he says.

On the topic of what’s hot, notes Pelman, vampires and sci-fi continue to be it, 3D is returning with a vengeance, and the 18-34 male demo is still the salient sweet spot.

So, what about TV?

While Maple also has all the Canadian rights to the Lionsgate TV library, including such runaway successes as Mad Men, Weeds and Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, its focus remains on features.

Naturally, in Canada, the distributor plays a lesser role in TV as the broadcaster triggers the majority of financing. But with the TV business in flux, and ad dollars all but vanished, the question for Maple is how to get broadcasters who are looking for cheap programming re-interested in buying feature films.

‘TV has been hit hard by the [economic] downturn,’ says Pelman. ‘So, we’re looking for different ways to equate value for feature films in the broadcast arena.’

Copros are good business

And on the subject of dissipated funding and creative financing, he champions copros. While some might argue they negate the reflection of Canadian culture, Pelman says the flexibility a copro offers from a creative perspective is unparalleled. ‘They are risk-tolerable and the only way around the non-commercial rules in the 10-out-of-10 world.’

This is not to say Pelman doesn’t support Cancon. He simply recognizes that the Canadian industry is not only made up of writers, directors and actors, but producers, studios, trades, craft services… ‘Making films just by and for Canadians is like ignoring that Wal-Mart exists.’*