Production begins in Toronto June 9 on Highlander: The Raven, a Fireworks coproduction with France’s Gaumont. Citytv has issued a licence for the Canadian broadcast window of the first 20 episodes of the series based on the recurring character Amanda Raven,…

As acquisition discussions continue between Alliance Communications and distribution company Cineplex Odeon Films, Alliance chairman and ceo Robert Lantos confirms that if a deal goes through, his company’s intention is to keep cof as a separate operating entity….

Earlier this month, as the crtc announced a major review of all its policies affecting Canadian television programming, the ink was drying on the $40-million acquisition deal signed a day earlier between Winnipeg-based CanWest Global Communications and Jay Firestone’s midsize Toronto…

Legislation implementing the 11% labor-based Ontario Production Services Tax Credit for foreign and domestic producers was unveiled in the provincial Conservative government’s budget May 5. The budget also announced planned enhancements to the existing Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and…

Paragon Entertainment is completing due diligence on a letter of intent offer from India-based Rubicon Films for its u.k. feature subsidiary HandMade Films….

Alliance Communications is adding four tv movies from the recently acquired Citadel Entertainment to its 1998 television slate, says Alliance’s new president of filmed entertainment, David R. Ginsburg….

Much of Toronto-based Sullivan Entertainment’s 1998 production slate seems focused on the reworking of established programs and characters….

A wave of consolidation is hitting Canada’s distribution industry, forcing the few players left to react quickly in the wake Alliance Releasing’s volume domination of the market….

A deal that was to have seen veteran film producer Peter O’Brian join his Independent Pictures/ Mission Pictures with the publicly traded Noble House Communications has died….

Novelist/screenwriter Paul Quarrington is prepping for a four-day summer shoot of a one-hour adaptation of his play Check Out Time, loosely based on the experience of bringing his novel Whale Music to the big screen with Alliance in 1994….

Canada’s Feature Film Policy Review will culminate in a two-day summit designed to congeal industry consensus before Heritage Minister Sheila Copps takes any policy recommendations to cabinet, say Heritage sources. But considering the varying agendas of the industry players who form…

Based on an idea from chairman and ceo Robert Lantos, Alliance is aiming for an Oct. 12 startup on six one-hours of the political/spy/action series Cover Me for the cbc. Series creator and exec producer Peter Lauterman (e.n.g., North of 60)…