Halifax-based PowerPost Production continues to be Atlantic Canada’s busiest post-production facility since launching in its current incarnation in February 2004. It has seven projects on the go and is establishing itself as a leader in posting HD.

Luc Dionne’s dramatic feature Aurore now boasts the third-highest opening-weekend box office in Quebec history. Three days after its July 8 release, the feature from producers Denise Robert and Daniel Louis of Montreal prodco Cinémaginaire had brought in $953,708, placing it just behind the opening grosses of Séraphin: Un homme et son péché and top-rated Les Boys III. Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm released the feature at 116 Quebec theaters.

It remains unclear whether G8 leaders were listening, but Canadians were definitely watching.

Montreal: Les Boys en prolongation, the fourth installment in Quebec’s top movie franchise about a team of misfit amateur hockey players, is underway for producer/creator Richard Goudreau of Montreal’s Melenny Productions.
‘Everything’s been going very well. We’re having a lot of fun as usual. The actors are happy to be together again,’ said Goudreau on the eleventh day of shooting.

For the Canadian production services sector, it looked like the industry had hit rock bottom in 2003, and then it got worse. As Hollywood productions were lured by new tax credits throughout the U.S. and abroad, Canadian service providers were hit hard by the downturn.

Less than two weeks after its June 15 release by Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm, the French-language comedy feature Idole instantanée, from Montreal prodco Cinémaginaire, was approaching the $1-million mark. As of June 27, box-office totals were more than $950,000 from 104 screens.

Montreal: Answered by Fire, a CBC miniseries from Montreal’s Muse Entertainment about the 1999 referendum in East Timor and its bloody aftermath, started shooting in Australia on June 27, with plans to wrap by the end of August.
Quebec actress Isabelle Blais (Savage Messiah) stars with Australia’s David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) in the four-hour mini, about an RCMP officer who volunteers for a peacekeeping mission in East Timor and an Australian policeman who commands the civilian police force there.

Nova Scotia is hosting several major service productions this summer, attracting big-name stars including Billy Bob Thornton, Milla Jovovich, Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond. However, the story of the summer is the feature adaptation of the homegrown comedy series Trailer Park Boys, which brings together the best in Canadian TV comedy with one of the big screen’s most successful comedy talents.

British actors Richard E. Grant (Bright Young Things) and Joss Ackland (K-19: The Widowmaker) have joined Canuck thesps Mark Critch (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Steve Cochrane and Mark O’Brien on the CBC miniseries Above and Beyond, which began shooting June 20 in Newfoundland. The project is a copro between St. John’s-based Pope Productions and Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films.

The seventh annual Strategic Partners Conference, running Sept. 16-18 in Halifax during the first weekend of the 25th Atlantic Film Festival, is ramping up for a key year, as coproduction continues to fuel worldwide markets, and as the event’s reputation for successfully introducing international partners has grown significantly over the last several years.

Halifax to finally fade in on Fade Out

After its first weekend in Canadian theaters, It’s All Gone Pete Tong, released by Odeon June 10, grossed $42,449 from four screens.