Premiere the latest of a plethora

of gov’t. programs for novices

Vancouver: Whew! New Views, Next Wave, Horizon, and now Premiere. What next? They’re all government-sponsored programs aimed at encouraging more production from up-and-coming filmmakers, and for this correspondent, they’re all getting a tad confusing.

Late last month, British Columbia Film, the National Film Board’s Pacific Centre and Telefilm Canada announced the launch of Premiere, a joint-venture program intended to support b.c. directors in the realization of their first or second low-budget feature-length drama.

Premiere evolved out of New Views III, the program responsible for Fred Frame’s Home Movie, David Hauka’s Impolite and Mina Shum’s Genie Award-winning film, Double Happiness (the latter was not Next Wave as I wrote in my last column. Got that straight?).

Premiere will fund new feature projects with production budgets under $1 million. Once again, the attachment of a distributor is not required at application stage.

My question is why rename or tamper with a program that was obviously already working and had name recognition?

Wayne Sterloff, president and ceo of B.C. Film, explains: ‘It was an ownership issue. Since B.C. Film started New Views we wanted to share the credit with the other government funding agencies that are now involved, and renaming the program was the best way of doing it.’ Fair enough.

Budge is back

in most films that call for the ashes of a dead person, they naturally substitute some other material. But apparently it never looks quite right; real human ashes are heavier and they sprinkle differently. So in an effort to lend cinematic veracity to the low-budget feature One Foot In Heaven, currently being shot in Vancouver (as part of the Next Wave program), one of the crew members, hairstylist Mariah Crawley, unexpectedly offered up the remains of her dead grandfather.

And while some might think it sounds a bit sacrilegious to dump grandpapa overboard in front of the bright lights just for a movie, the family (after consultation) had no problems.

It turns out gramps was the legendary Canadian documentary filmmaker Budge Crawley, who produced The Man Who Skied Down Everest. Donating the ashes simply meant giving him a second life in films.

According to a spokesperson for the film, when asked for permission, the family said, ‘Sure, Budge would love to be back in Canadian films.’ Only this time he’s in front of the cameras.

Circle game

here we go again. Word has it the b.c. government was finally ready to make the big announcement about a tax-incentive scheme after more than four years of industry consultation, and thenÉ

The program was fashioned after the Ontario Film Investment Program, but there’ll be some last-minute tinkering because several producers thought maybe it should look more like the sogic model in Quebec.

Eleventh-hour letters have gone out to members of the industry requesting further opinions and tres speedy responses.

Says Matthew O’Connor, president of the b.c. branch of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association: ‘Frankly, at this point I don’t care what the program is like just as long as we get something.

‘Through the cftpa we did make a joint labor management presentation that was along the lines of the sogic program. That was well received. But later we learned that there had already been guidelines drawn up and we backed off because we didn’t want to rock the boat and send mixed messages over (to government hq in Victoria). We do want to present a unified voice for the industry.’

O’Connor stresses that even though the government consulted with the industry and the cftpa for many years on this matter, it was prior to the creation of a producer’s group within the local cftpa.

He hopes the government will consult with the producers prior to drawing up its final, final guidelines.

And the clock ticks on.

Bliss-ful

glenorky, the Pacific Motion Pictures/Triumph Releasing family feature executive produced by pmp’s Tony Allard and produced by Matthew O’Connor of pmp along with l.a.-based Rick Stevenson, who also directed, is in the final stages of post-production. Triumph has scheduled a May 5 release date for 1,000 theaters across the u.s. A Canadian distribution deal is still in the works.

Next on the boards is a pmp/Allyn Stewart Productions feature, Bliss, to be executive produced by O’Connor and produced by Allyn Stewart, with Triumph distributing. The film was written by former Warner Bros. studio exec Lance Young, who will also make his directorial debut on the film.

O’Connor describes Bliss as a sophisticated drama about human intimacy and relationships. It stars Terence Stamp (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) and Craig Sheffer (the older brother in A River Runs Through It). A female lead has yet to be cast.

Production is slated to begin in Vancouver April 3.

Meanwhile, pmp’s first self-produced feature, A Boy Called Hate, starring Scott Cann, and directed by Mitch Marcus and shot in l.a. last September, is attracting considerable interest from foreign distributors and developing into what O’Connor hopes will be an escalating bidding war.

Executive produced by Allard and produced by Bobby Duchowney and Steve Nicolaides, the film has already been invited to screen at the Berlin Film Festival, but its u.s. distributor, Skouras, is advising them to hold out for Cannes.

‘It’s great,’ says O’Connor. ‘Everyone is so enthusiastic about the project that they’re all asking `What else have you got?’ It’s really helping to do the job of putting us on the map in that market, which is exactly what we were hoping it would do.’

Hmmmmmm

last issue I questioned what would become of Jay Firestone’s executive producer status on the computer-animated series ReBoot – which he helped get off the ground with producer Chris Brough – now that Firestone is no longer with Alliance Communications.

According to Alliance spokesperson Suzan Ayscough, who called to let us know, Firestone will not retain his exec producer credit; he is being replaced by Stephane Reichel. Maybe someone should have told Brough?