Crescent taps in to B.C. Film’s

multimedia development fund

Vancouver: Vancouver’s Crescent Entertainment will be the first production company to take advantage of British Columbia Film’s new multimedia development program.

The provincial film funding agency has committed $10,000 to support development of an interactive cd-rom project, A Ghost In The Dark. The mystery title, which will combine sound, black-and-white still photos and windows of motion picture to create an environment that the user can travel through, is being written by James Tichenor and produced by Jayme Pfahl.

Other service productions in the hopper at Crescent include a three-hour dramatic miniseries entitled Hiroshima for Showtime in the u.s. commemorating the 50th anniversary of the historic bombing of the Japanese city; Operation Tailhook, an mow for abc based on the alleged sexual abuse of female officers in the u.s. Navy; and Midwest Obsession, another headline murder-case-of-the-week.

Producer Harold Tichenor is budgeting the shows for b.c. as well as New Zealand, the latest big bargoon production center.

Day in the sun

Director Mina Shum’s debut feature Double Happiness has its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 21. The little Vancouver film that hit it big on the festival circuit last fall basked in a distributor’s bidding war before Malofilm Distribution came up with the hefty bucks to win Canadian rights.

Prestigious u.s. distributor, Fineline Films, which scored the American rights, plans to close the San Francisco Film Festival with Double Happiness and then go directly into a u.s. theatrical release. Malofilm, wisely recognizing Canadian audiences’ annoying habit of waiting until a film gains u.s. recognition before heading to theaters here, will hold off on the Canadian release until it has had a chance to benefit from the American publicity machine. A European release is slated for the Berlin Film Festival later this spring.

On her toes

Vancouver choreographer Trudi Forrest is getting a lot of attention for her work in director Gillian Armstrong’s (My Brilliant Career) superb creation of Little Women, shot here last year. However, she is more than a little disappointed that so much of the dance footage, shot at Vancouver’s Hycroft House and Craigdarroch Castle over in Victoria, ended up on the cutting floor.

Casting for the scenes proved to be a challenge. In keeping with the period, the stringent requirements for the female dancers stipulated women of 5′ 5′ or under, a 26-inch waist, no suntans or false nails, and no plucked eyebrows or dyed hair – no wonder they couldn’t shoot it in l.a.

Forrest is now off to South Africa to work as a choreographer with the Sibikawa Players Community Theatre in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Heavyweight help

He Ain’t Heavy, a Depression-era feature from Dean Hamilton Entertainment of l.a. about two orphaned lads who travel across America to reach a fabled sanctuary for young boys, is getting some unexpected promotional help from new U.S. Congress house speaker, Newt Gingrich.

Currently filming in Vancouver, the screenplay was inspired by the 1917 founding of Boys Town, the Omaha, Nebraska mission famous for its acceptance of homeless boys.

As luck would have it, the film is being shot amidst an uproar in the u.s. over a recent Republican proposal to make orphanages a part of welfare reform. Apparently ole Newt suggested that Hilary Rodham Clinton rent the original 1938 Boys Town starring Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy to bone up on the subject.

Director/producer Dean Hamilton says a portion of the profits from the $2.2 million budgeted feature will be donated to the modern-day Boys Town.

He Ain’t Heavy stars Danny Aiello and son Rick, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Rooney and Dee Wallace Stone.

Word has it Victoria-based 10-year-old, Keegan MacIntosh (Lassie, Legends of the Fall, Intersection), who also stars in the film, is blowing them away on-set with his performance.

Let’s not talk

Tim Hiltz, former assistant business agent at IATSE Local 891, has moved into a bigger chair over at the B.C. and Yukon Joint Council of Film Unions as its new manager of business affairs.

Hiltz hopes to revive the unifying and mediating power of the council left more or less in limbo since the departure of Jak King several years ago. Certainly if ever there was a need for the council, now is the time.

As for Hiltz’s New Year’s predictions on the outcome of the current morass of union hassles? ‘No comment, no comment and no comment.’

Up and running

The B.C. Film Commission reports 1995 shows every indication of being as busy as last year. So for all you crew members leaping back in the saddle after the holidays, take a deep breath.

Mark DesRochers, production and locations manager for the commission, says there’s a stack of scripts awaiting his attention, with requests to scout for four mows, two features and a mid-season replacement series.