According to actor Ralph Fiennes, someone once joked that when meeting David Cronenberg for the first time, ‘You expect to meet a freak, and instead meet someone a bit like an L.A. gynecologist. He has something of a doctor’s clarity and precision about him.’

Editor Ronald Sanders

The Movie Network and Movie Central are continuing their combined quest to be ‘HBO North’ with their recently announced lineup for 2005/06, putting the drama Terminal City and the B.C.-shot series Stuntdawgs in for this fall.

Theater chain Cineplex Galaxy has purchased Famous Players for $500 million, effectively redrawing the map of movie exhibition in Canada by consuming its archrival, while at the same time opening the door for new competitors.

While producer Don Carmody may be best known for his credits on Hollywood productions, he recently got behind the Canada/U.K. copro feature Some Things That Stay.

Summer’s nearly here, meaning the local multiplex will be bursting with blockbuster tales of futuristic worlds and caped crusaders. And for the past several years, many of the biggest of these fantasy films have been produced in Vancouver. The same can be said of the small screen, with nets such as Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. shooting its most popular shows in B.C. All these producers are taking advantage of the city’s inherent advantages and the infrastructure that has blossomed since the mid-1990s.

While high-end digital video cameras have become regular showstoppers at NAB, this year they will share the spotlight with a variety of HD camcorders priced under US$10,000.

When one thinks of cities with top audio post houses, Regina doesn’t usually spring to mind. But then again, nobody would have associated hit comedy productions with the Queen City either, at least not until Corner Gas. And Brent Butt’s smash series about the goofy goings-on in Dog River, SK, entrusts its audio post needs to local shop Talking Dog Studios.

For its second consecutive airing of the Genie Awards (March 21), CHUM Television is pulling out all the stops to try to make the show an Oscars-style event for Canadian viewers. But how will the broadcaster draw eyeballs when the public is largely unfamiliar with most of the nominated films, the star power is limited and the country’s audience is clearly divided along language lines?

Canada’s domestic post-production shops have been rocked by several setbacks in recent times, but, through it all, Toronto-based video post house Eyes Post Group soldiers on, having so far avoided the shuttering, mergers and buyouts so prevalent in the sector.

Having grossed more than US$44 million at the North American box office at press time, White Noise has been a massive success for Canadian prodco Brightlight Pictures out of Vancouver and U.K. coproducer Gold Circle Films. Nevertheless, Brightlight says it isn’t pursuing any new Canada/U.K. copro deals, due to last year’s changes in U.K. international copro rules.

After 25 years of producing top-quality Canadian programming – including Da Vinci’s Inquest, Blue Murder, Milgaard, At The End of The Day: The Sue Rodriguez Story, Scorn and Diana Kilmury: Teamster – to say that Barna-Alper Productions president Laszlo Barna has won the respect of his peers is an understatement.