Funds go to Rocketfuel Productions in Edmonton and Montreal’s Films Isle Turbulent

With an extended strike deadline looming on Jan. 8, eleventh-hour contract negotiations between producers and actors have boiled down to two fractious issues: wages and new media.

Run an Internet search on filmmaker and occasional boxer Uwe Boll and you’ll find pages and pages of sites, blogs, and message boards all ‘Boll bashing’ his various video game adaptations including House of the Dead and BloodRayne.

Alliance Atlantis Communications loudly confirmed what had been quietly known for some time on Dec. 20 when the Toronto-based broadcast giant announced that it is, indeed, on the block and seeking expressions of interest from ‘selected potential buyers.’

IATSE has signed a new contract that stands to make Canada more attractive for low-budget U.S. shoots and which, for the first time, gives equal pay and benefits to union members on both sides of the border.

Broadcasters won a major victory over the CRTC late last month when a federal judge ruled that so-called ‘Part two’ fees charged by the agency were an illegal tax.

Tatiana Maslany (Booky Makes Her Mark) and Mary-Louise Parker star in The Robber Bride, an adaptation of the Margaret Atwood murder yarn from Shaftesbury Films and Working Title Television. The MOW airs Jan. 21 on CBC and also stars Shawn Doyle, Greg Bryk and Wendy Crewson

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Quebec’s star-crossed lovers came out on top despite heavy competition over the holidays when Roméo et Juliette opened on Dec. 15 to a first-week gross of $481,510, besting the box-office take on French screens of both Charlotte’s Web and The Pursuit of Happyness.

Selling hockey on DVD in Canada should be as much of a sure thing as betting against the Leafs winning a Stanley Cup in our lifetimes, but the relative success of three hockey titles released last month had more to do with content and marketing strategies than love of the game.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period Dec. 22-28, 2006 and DVD sales in Canada for the period Dec. 11-17, 2006.

More drama and higher-stakes storytelling are in store for the sophomore season of Global Television’s primetime soap Falcon Beach.