Unrest fermenting once again on the British Columbia union scene

Vancouver: Industry types on the West Coast are slowly wending their way back from holidays into full production mode amidst much moaning and groaning from the producer ranks that the hired help – read union crews – are starting to get ‘greedy’ again. The writing was on the wall last month. First IATSE Local 891 business agent Brent O’Connor put in for a leave of absence (rumor has it a permanent one) followed by the surprise ousting of veteran union man George Chapman as president of the 1,800-strong technicians union.

Chapman had been seen as getting too cozy with the producer ranks and not taking a hard enough line in contract negotiations. His replacement, Don Ramsden, who earned a reputation for not mincing his words when he previously held the position, will likely take a more aggressive approach.

One well-placed industry source, who insists he not be identified, perceptively analyzes the situation thus:

‘It’s hard not to become greedy when Vancouver appears to be getting so much work and yet the workers see the dollars they’re earning staying so lowit’s hard not to question why more of the money doesn’t seem to be coming their way.

‘But what they don’t seem to realize or listen to when their union representatives tell them, is that no matter how much work Vancouver gets, this will always be a very volatile business, one where remaining cost-competitive is still the name of the game. All they have to do is look at what happened to Toronto when their unions got out of hand.’

Speaking of unions, there’s talk once again of reviving the once feared and revered B.C. and Yukon Joint Council of Film Unions. Ironically, it all comes at a time when producers have finally gotten their act together to form a real producers’ association to address some joint concerns.

Spokesperson for the producers’ organization, Harold Tichenor of Crescent Entertainment, says the newly formed producers’ group is moving ahead on the drafting of bylaws and a constitution that will likely see it have some kind of affiliation with the national Canadian Film and Television Production Association.

Although stressing that he can’t speak for all producers, Tichenor says if the Joint Union Council is resurrected, ‘we as producers would definitely have some concerns. It didn’t work all that well before and I think with the current Teamsters/actra issue (see story, p. 1), it would just cloud the union situation even further.

‘What we do need,’ he adds, ‘is to find a more orderly and calm way of negotiating fair contracts; that’s really all the producers’ association is about. Versus constantly having just an ad hoc reaction, we want a consolidated voice representing producers here.’

The Horseman cometh

everyone in town is wondering what WIC Western International Communications will do with its floundering Westcom Entertainment now that Tony Allard, former executive vice-president of Westcom, has left and former cbc wunderkind Ivan Fecan has signed on with wic’s arch rival Baton Broadcasting. Word has it wic had also been in the running for cbc’s heavy-hitting production guru, but was unwilling to pay the big bucks or recognize the importance of taking on some real muscle for its production arm.

In the meantime, Dale Andrews has assumed Allard’s former title as executive vice-president, but word has it he gets the title but not the clout.

wic finally gave the go-ahead just before Christmas to executive producer Phillip Keatley and producer Julia Keatley to begin production on The Horseman in February.

The Keatleys were no doubt relieved to get the final confirmation after an unexpected stop/ start/stop last year when The Horseman was scheduled to go ahead as a series until, according to local buzz, there was some back-room financial finagling with Telefilm Canada and wic to delay production due to a shortage of available funds in the federal funding agency’s coffers.

Budgeted at $2.4 million, The Horseman, about an undercover special unit rcmp officer, will be directed by Vancouver-based Bill Corcoran, with Gordon Marks signed on the project as line producer.

High pitch

paragon West vice-president of development Julie Lee is making rapid progress in getting a number of projects off the ground and into development deals. And Gary Randall, president of Paragon US, is hustling up a storm and getting phenomenal results from his endless stream of pitch sessions with the US networks.

So far, Paragon has inked development deals for an unprecedented eight dramatic series pilots – two apiece for abc, nbc, cbs and Fox Broadcasting.

The first project off and running from the West Coast office is Blood Brothers, a series about two brothers, one a homicide detective and the other a forensic medical examiner. The writer is Chris Haddock, creator of the Mom p.i. tv series and executive story editor on MacGyver.

Randall says the project, which would be shot in Canada, received a tres enthusiastic response from abc brass and he expects an order to film within the next couple of weeks.

Adventure Inc., an action/adventure series developed previously in partnership with Primedia and CanWest Global while Randall and Lee were working with Spelling Television, has now been revised and is also back on the boards at nbc.

Meanwhile, Randall’s former employer appears to have abandoned any plans to continue its presence in Canada, other than possibly through a connection with Paragon. So far there’s no word on the half dozen mows Spelling talked about filming in Vancouver this year. Instead, the company has rented out its entire facility for the next few months.

At your service

over on the service side of the industry, local producer/pm Bob Gray has just opened a production office to begin preproduction on the latest Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Name of the Rose, Quest For Fire) picture, a 3D imax film for Sony Entertainment and TriStar Pictures entitled Wings of Courage (formerly Aeropostal).

Scripted by Annaud, the film is based on a series of stories written by French writer/pioneer aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who wrote The Little Prince and Night Flight. Although only 35-40 minutes in length, Wings of Courage will employ all the latest in 3D technology. Filming in Vancouver and Alberta begins later this spring.

Dig it

fellow pm/producer Justis Greene has been racking up the air miles in style over the last few months. He was hired by Disney to conduct a massive scout around the world in New Zealand, Iceland, Hawaii and Canada for its next mega feature, the remake of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Production, if it gets the final go-ahead, will begin in Vancouver this summer. Disney has already put down deposits for the entire Bridge Studio facilities.

Let us say Grace

australian film director Gillian Armstrong of My Brilliant Career fame was spotted being squired around town last week by local pm/line producer Grace Gilroy. My sources inform me that Armstrong was here to check out possible locations and facilities to film a Columbia Pictures remake of the 1933 Academy Award-winning film Little Women based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott. If all goes well, shooting could begin as early as this April.

Double Happiness

vancouver filmmaker Mina Shum’s screenplay Double Happiness, about a young Chinese-Canadian woman who is trying to live up to both the expectations of her old-world parents and her own needs and desires, has been selected from more than 50 entrants as the winner of New Views iii competition.

New Views iii is a jointly sponsored program supported by three funding agencies, British Columbia Film, Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board Pacific Centre, which allows an emerging filmmaker to make a first low-budget feature film by providing 100% of the budget.

Shum, a native of Hong Kong, now resides in Canada. She studied film at the University of British Columbia and recently completed a summer lab as a director resident at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

Double Happiness, produced by Rose Lam Waddell and Stephen Hegyes, will begin principal photography within the next two months.

The Michelle Apartments, written and produced by Hegyes and being directed by John Pozer of The Grocer’s Wife fame, is also set to move ahead later this spring, provided Telefilm decides to finance it at a ‘reasonable level.’

Riding off into syndication

the producers of the popular teen dramatic series Neon Rider, Danny Virtue, Winston Rekert and Atlantis Films, have finally secured the balance of financing necessary to complete the 65 episodes required for syndication. Last year it looked like the money was going to come from the b.c. government’s Export Loan Guarantee Program, but now that’s apparently changed. They’ve raised the money through private investment, which was facilitated by a more flexible arrangement for recoupment negotiated with the funding agencies.

Word has it another teen dramatic series, Madison, is also having trouble finding the financing it needs and might only shoot 13 episodes even though the broadcaster, CanWest Global, put in an order for 26. My sources inform me Telefilm is once again too strapped for cash to fully support the critically acclaimed series.