Buzzin’ along in Montreal

Not many movies set in ancient Greece get shot in Montreal in the dead of winter. And yet that’s exactly where and when Warner Bros. sent director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) to make 300, a somewhat true retelling of an epic battle from 480 BC, adapted from the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City).

With Adobe’s latest production software bundle, Adobe Production Studio, the creative software company based in San Jose, CA, can finally claim a powerful tool that reaches beyond the lower-end user and into the high-end digital post domain.

The Jigsaw Killer will be back in T.O. for the third installment of the successful Saw horror franchise, and most of the slicing and dicing will happen in the Deluxe|Post Production DI suite.

Magnetic North is getting out of the audio post-production sector, and Urban Post Production is taking over its audio facilities.

Vancouver post shop Artifex Studios worked on a dozen FX scenes on Julia Kwan’s festival darling Eve & the Fire Horse, including a dream sequence of horses running underwater, and an opera-singing goldfish that is attracting a lot of attention.

It has been two months since SaskFilm implemented revisions to its provincial tax credit, putting it on par with Manitoba’s as the most attractive in the country. And although production has not significantly increased yet, interest from producers both in and out of the province has been steady and noted, according to Susanne Bell, acting Saskatchewan film commissioner and SaskFilm CEO.

With Alberta turning 100 this year, filmmaker/actor Paul Gross is getting personal with his upcoming Passchendaele, a $16-million Alberta-shot war epic looking at the contributions of Canadians in the First World War. The theatrical feature has received an unprecedented $5.5 million in direct investment from the Government of Alberta to get it started.

After a two-month delay, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story – the 2 x 120 miniseries from Regina’s Minds Eye Entertainment – will air on CBC on Sunday, March 12 and Monday, March 13 at 8 p.m.

Jamie Brown, CEO/executive producer at Winnipeg’s Frantic Films, and his team are currently in production on Music Rising, a one-hour doc for CTV about the titular charity group aiding New Orleans musicians affected by hurricane Katrina.

Winnipeg: Avant-garde auteur Guy Maddin is venturing into new territory as he prepares to shoot a documentary about his Winnipeg hometown.

After several years of servicing film projects from the U.S., animation and FX house Satellite Animation Studios, newly settled in Calgary, is looking to make a name for itself in local circles and also show off its creative range.