JB’s Drowning goes to camera

Toronto: Copperheart Entertainment and its partners are closing in on a remake of Black Christmas and plan to shoot an updated version of the seminal slasher pic in Vancouver by fall – just as soon as director Glen Morgan and partner James Wong wrap Final Destination 3. Wong will write and produce with Morgan.

Snow in April

Quebec cinema has had two major celebrations in the span of one month: first at its official awards show, the Prix Jutra, and then at the national Genie Awards on March 21, where it again flexed its might. Productions based in Quebec hauled away three-quarters of the Genie statues (15 awards), with Ontario chiming in for five trophies, and B.C. barely on the radar with one lone prize, for best doc winner The Corporation.

Pending Canadian Television Fund approval, the 2005/06 season could see 11 one-hour dramas on Canadian airwaves, including new series such as CTV’s Whistler and Global’s Falcon Beach, as well as returning series such as This is Wonderland on CBC. A twelfth series, Charlie Jade, a new Canada/South Africa copro sci-fi series from CHUM, shot overseas and debuted this month. The three national nets have ordered a total of 221 hours of drama, including four new one-hour series, all evidence that the crisis in Canadian drama could be coming to an end.
Or is it?

Canadian participation in international coproductions has plummeted by as much as 50% over the past few years, according to statistics recently released by Telefilm Canada. The surprisingly poor numbers are thought to be more accurate than previous tallies and paint a grim picture of Canada’s production partnerships in the U.K. and Europe.
‘The news is not good at this point,’ says Danny Chalifour, director of international operations and development at Telefilm. ‘This is worse than we expected.’

Children’s and information programming will be big as Canadian producers and distributors get ready to parlez with customers in Cannes, France, at the annual MIPTV trade spectacle, April 11-15.

The Bédard Commission report on the future of Télé-Québec met with mixed reviews after it was released on March 9 – calling as it did for the educational channel to get back to its roots by focusing on programming but failing to either make a case to boost its budget or to shake off the specter of privatization.

Vancouver: On March 16, the Supreme Court of British Columbia handed a $351,000 judgment to Water Street Pictures of Vancouver in a breach-of-trust lawsuit launched against now-defunct Forefront Releasing, along with Vancity Capital Corporation and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

The film and video tax credit in Manitoba could now cover more than half a production’s labor expenses.

Phil the Alien, Rob Stefaniuk’s no-budget comedy about the misadventures of an extraterrestrial barfly in northern Ontario, had a respectable first week at the box office, raking in almost $13,000 from four screens.

Phil the Alien: Up top, almost everyone gives high marks to Rob Stefaniuk’s no-budget comedy about a wayward, drunken E.T., but there are a lot of ‘buts’ buried in the fine print.