To borrow from Hugh MacLennan, I propose we rebrand Playback and call it Two Solitudes magazine. Any random issue can be neatly divided in its references to the successes of French-Canadian production viewed against the struggles of English-Canadian production. Then there is the equally elegant application of the phrase to the diverging realities between Canadian broadcasters and producers. ‘Three Solitudes’ might be more to the point.

Regina: Starting to shoot a feature in Saskatchewan at the end of September can be a little risky, but two snow days and one Indian summer later, Terry Gilliam’s Tideland is enjoying a blessed shoot.
Principal photography began in and around Regina on Sept. 27. Things started to look grim when, several weeks in, the feature’s nine-year-old star, Vancouver native Jodelle Ferland (Kingdom Hospital, Wolf Lake) suffered a bug bite that left her lip too swollen to work. Then the area was hit with an incredible snowfall.

Montreal film tackles child abuse

A doc for all seasons

Toronto: Ving Rhames will be back in Toronto in January for more Kojak – having been re-upped by USA Network for a series version of the recent MOW, which shot here in August. The two-hour MOW will be repackaged as the pilot for the nine-week series – with Rhames reprising the role of the tough, titular New York cop played by Telly Savalas on CBS in the ’70s.

Genome – the musical

Meet the beetles

Daniel Pellerin is a Genie and Gemini Award-winning sound supervisor, rerecording mixer, music supervisor and contractor. Recent credits for Daniel Pellerin Digital Sound Productions include the dramatic features Being Julia and The Dark Hour; the TV series Puppets Who Kill; docs The Take, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire, Shipbreakers, A Whale of a Tale and ScaredSacred; and the animated film Yankee Irving, started by the late Christopher Reeve.

Montreal: As with other film production centers across Canada, Quebec has been feeling the pinch in the reversal of fortune of guest productions. This year has seen a substantial decline in foreign shoots coming to la belle province.

Anglophone producers in Quebec have joined forces to create the English Language Film and Television Council of Quebec. In addition to identifying common challenges Quebec’s English producers face, one of the council’s key objectives will be to gain recognition for them as an official language minority community, making them eligible for federal funding that is usually reserved for francophones living outside Quebec.

Quebec actor Emmanuel Bilodeau confesses to being occasionally confused on the set of Rene Levesque, the six-hour miniseries about the late separatist leader currently shooting in Montreal. The CBC/SRC mini is being shot in French and English concurrently, meaning the actor, who plays Levesque, is required to switch linguistic gears at very short notice.

Pundits looked upon last year as an aberration in the Quebec feature film business, with an inordinate amount of domestic releases achieving blockbuster status at the local box office. Leading the pack were Seraphin: un homme et son peche (the unprecedented success of which carried over from 2002), La Grande seduction, Les Invasions barbares and Mambo Italiano, each taking in more than $5 million.