‘Playing second fiddle to Torontosaurus Rex’

Playback’s annual 10 to Watch list, featured in this issue, is heartening in how it demonstrates the wealth of young talent in this country, and yet somewhat unnerving when one considers what may lie ahead for these promising artists.

Vancouver: Production runs June 6 to July 29 in Kelowna and the Okanagan on Vancouver-based Anagram Pictures’ $11-million feature Fido. A zombie film that writer/director and Anagram producer Andrew Currie has had in development for almost a decade, Fido is about a boy with a domesticated pet zombie named Fido (played by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly), who gets them both into trouble after eating a neighbor.

Kent reunites with Streeters in Hamster Cage

Winnipeg: Near the end of shooting on 2003’s The Saddest Music in the World, star Isabella Rossellini began speaking with director Guy Maddin about a potential short marking the 2006 centenary of the birth of her father, the late film director Roberto Rossellini. Now, the 17-minute film, My Dad Is 100 Years Old, is in post and will likely premiere on the festival circuit next year.

X3 marks the spot

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.

Vision TV seeking Seekers

* Attention ladies: Brad Pitt is spending the summer in and around Calgary and Edmonton shooting the new Ridley and Tony Scott-produced Warner Bros. Western feature The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Pitt’s last appearance in Alberta was in 1993 for the filming of Legends of the Fall. Andrew Dominik will direct the adaptation of the Ron Hansen novel. Preproduction begins this month.

The Atlantic provinces’ unique landscape and strong tax credits continue to successfully lure some guest shoots, but domestic productions continue to be the local industry’s main driver.

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.

Palpable Productions and Acuity Pictures have wrapped on the feature Whole New Thing from director Amnon Buchbinder (The Fishing Trip). The film, written by Buchbinder and Daniel MacIvor (Wilby Wonderful), is about a young man who comes from a very sexually open family. At 13, he develops his first real crush, on his teacher, Don.