Riding the wave of an Oscar win for Capote, Vancouver-based prodco Infinity Features is back at work shooting Butterfly on a Wheel, a psychological thriller starring Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler and Maria Bello – hoping again to turn out a world-class production that garners both critical acclaim and a profit.
Butterfly is a $20-million Canada/U.K. treaty copro between Infinity and Irish DreamTime.

Revenue among private Canadian broadcasters rose nearly 4% in 2005 to $2.2 billion, delivering profits of $242 million – up from $232 million in 2004 – according to data released by the CRTC. The total spend for programming for 2005 was $1.3 billion, with $587 million going to Canadian-made programming, up 1.9% from 2004.

CHUM Television has killed two series and bought three new ones – making room on its schedules for a vampire, a Victorian-era detective and a period-piece mystery by showing its hunky monk and randy restaurateurs to the door.

The Gemini Awards are going on the road, and will hand out the country’s top TV honors later this year in British Columbia – leaving Toronto for the first time in favor of a combination casino, theater and resort near Vancouver.

With the busy summer shooting season about to start, behind-the-camera workers in British Columbia have signed new union contracts with Canuck and U.S. producers – while separate talks between producers and actors remain stuck in neutral.

The Quebec government has appointed Senator Francis Fox to mediate the standoff between the AQTIS and IATSE.

B.C.’s film and television industry staged an economic comeback in 2005, as total spending increased by more than 50% to over $1.2 billion – up from $800 million in the lackluster 2004.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Final Destination 3) stars in the horror remake Black Christmas, which wrapped in Vancouver on March 28. The feature, taking its lead from Bob Clark’s original slasher flick, is about sorority sisters terrororized by a murderous caller. Glen Morgan (Willard) directs the film, a coproduction between Toronto’s Copper Heart Entertainment and L.A.’s 2929 Productions. Clark, who visited the set on the final day, is on board as exec producer. The film is due for release around Christmastime through Dimension Films.

Director Sturla Gunnarsson’s Canada/U.K./Iceland copro Beowulf & Grendel has easily held the top spot in box office among Canadian films since its release on March 10.
The epic tale about the legendary hero Beowulf (Gerard Butler) and his clash with killer troll Grendel (Ingvar Eggert Sigurosson), did solid business from March 17-26, taking in $155,658 for a total of $346,852.

It’s estimated that approximately 60% of Hollywood’s gross domestic film revenue comes from home video, but Canadian producers and distributors have been relatively slow to author globally competitive DVD versions. However, recent video releases of Genie- and Oscar-nominated films with Cancon offer signs that this trend will change.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period March 17-23 and DVD sales in Canada for the period March 6-12.

Perhaps its was a case of post-Olympics burnout, but CBC did not fare as well as it hoped with its sports programming last month, one of the most hectic ever for its sports crew.