MOW Song Spinner to begin Edmonton shoot in March

Vancouver: The West Edmonton Mall, a ufo landing pad in St. Paul, the giant Easter egg in Vegreville, and now a castle on the south side of Edmonton. Ah, those Albertans sure know how to think big.

The castle, resembling something out of medieval Europe, is part of the set for a new tv movie, The Song Spinner, being produced by Calgary-based Bradshaw MacLeod and Associates for Showtime in the u.s.

Following two weeks of filming at the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Song Spinner returns to Alberta to begin production March 13 at the Allarcom studios in Edmonton.

The original story and screenplay by Pauline LeBel of Edmonton is a fairy tale about a seven-year-old girl who lives in a land where noise is forbidden. She meets the elderly Zantalalia and together they bring back the sounds of music to their people.

Production designer John Blackie and art director Louise Middleton, along with the itv designers, have also used the entire soundstage to create an enchanted land known as Shandrilan for the film.

Casting has yet to be completed.

Beats candy

While Valentine’s Day for most means simply chocolates or flowers, for Mark Prasuhn, general manager of Saskfilm, it meant $4 million and the three-year renewal of the provincial film funding agency.

Previously, the agency was renewed on a year-to-year basis, but I guess the Saskatchewan government, after balancing its first budget in many a year, felt secure enough to commit to a multiyear investment.

‘It’s great,’ says Prasuhn, ‘now we can make longer term plans and continue to build on what we have started in the industry.’

New coprod partners

Regina-based Heartland Film Crew Productions has linked up with Vancouver-based Spectra Communications on what the two hope will become the first Saskatchewan/b.c. dramatic coproduction.

Wild Boys, an ‘alternative western’ written by Victor Nicolle, is loosely based on the true story of the McLean gang, a group of Metis boys who tried to take on a white settlement in the interior of b.c. at the turn of the century.

Producer Stephen Onda says he read the script last summer and was impressed with both the story and the quality of the writing.

Onda is now working with Doug Nicolle (Victor’s brother) to develop the project into either a low-budget feature for theatrical or television – they’re not sure which yet. But production in Saskatchewan is targeted for November of ’95.

Double Wave

The competition for Prairie Wave 2 began this month in Manitoba. Jointly sponsored by the Manitoba Cultural Industries Development Office and broadcaster cknd-tv, the program is aimed at developing emerging Manitoba independent filmmakers through the creation of a half-hour contemporary drama for broadcast this summer.

The winner of the competition will receive both the necessary funding and creative assistance for production of the drama, to be filmed in Winnipeg.

Last year’s Prairie Wave competition attracted over 40 submissions from Manitoba writers, producers and directors, and resulted in the telecast of The Woman Upstairs, a thriller directed by Shereen Jerrett and produced by Liz Jarvis. The film was also a finalist in the Manitoba Motion Picture Industries Association biannual Blizzard Awards, held Feb. 25.

Credo Entertainment Corporation (Manitoba’s main production game) and its producing partners were named in a record 44 Blizzard nominations. Winners of the Blizzards were not available at press time.

Bigtime for Pigtime

Keith Tomasek and Gary Yates of Winnipeg-based Pigtime Productions are certainly creating a jet stream with their short film Without Rockets. After making a broad sweep of the major European film festivals this fall, the 1994 Genie nominee for best short film was selected for screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Tomasek says although North American film festivals haven’t been quite as receptive to the duo’s rather bizarre sense of humor, they didn’t give up. After repeated rejections, their persistence paid off big time when Without Rockets opened for Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction at Century City in l.a. Tomasek is now talking deals with Picture Start of Chicago for u.s. distribution.