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Everyone’s a critic: Waterlife admirable, Imaginarium amusing
Waterlife: This documentary about the Great Lakes directed by Torontonian Kevin McMahon ‘has much to be admired in terms of a visual style and a message that is timely and urgent,’ according to Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail.
Moves
• E1 Entertainment has hired veteran Los Angeles development executive Larry Gilbert to drive its North American drama slate deeper into U.S. primetime. Gilbert, who in March departed Mel Gibson’s production shingle Icon Productions after three years as VP of television development, has joined E1 Entertainment’s Los Angeles office as VP of current programming.
Muse readies new Follett thriller
Movie Central and The Movie Network have unveiled plans for a raft of series and specials due to air in 2010, including an eight-part adaptation of the Ken Follett thriller The Pillars of the Earth and a new comedy from George F. Walker and Dani Romain.
Straight Up & Down
– The death of David Carradine has dealt a blow to the indie feature Portland, from Vancouver/L.A.-based Random Bench Productions, which was set to star the veteran actor and begin shooting in July. ‘David’s character is pivotal to our film,’ says Adrian Salpeter executive producer and co-principal at Random Bench, which is producing the film with L.A.-based Iconoclastic Features. ‘We are just weeks from production, so it is a big loss for us. David brought real star power to this movie.’
30 candles for Canada’s Academy
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television ushered in an era of glitz, glamour and national media awareness of this country’s filmmakers 30 years ago when PR was nothing but a dream north of Hollywood.
Multiple winner Walker still shines on A Winter Tan
Fresh off a win at the Banff World TV Festival for Best Canadian project (Passage), filmmaker John Walker says: ‘Life is good.’ The director and cinematographer has won one Genie and five Gemini Awards over 23 years in both documentary and fiction categories.
Genie’s ‘plumbing’ never the same after a lively party
Documentary activist and two-time Genie winner Velcrow Ripper recalls winning his first award for the lyrical ecological feature Bones of the Forest. (His second Genie came for ScaredSacred in 2004.)
Polka Dot won gold in final season
Michael McNamara, co-CEO of Markham Street Films, producers of the upcoming David Bezmozgis feature Victoria Day, directed and helped co-write the TVO hit Polka Dot Shorts, which won the best preschool series at the 2000 Geminis.
B.C. union members get 2% pay hike
B.C. producers and the American studios have inked a new three-year deal with the B.C. Council of Film Unions, giving film and TV employees in the province a 2% annual wage hike and increased producer contributions to union health programs. The council represents over 10,000 behind-the-scenes film and TV employees in the province through its member unions, which include IATSE Local 891, Teamsters Union Local No. 155 and IATSE Local 669.
CBSC sides with Dion
CTV was out of line when it aired three false starts of an interview with Stéphane Dion during the election campaign last fall, says the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which in a recent ruling sided with the former Liberal leader. CBSC ruled that airing the false starts was ‘discourteous and inconsiderate’ because CTV had indicated to Dion that it would not air them, and it violated ethical codes of the CAB and RTNDA.
CMF board announced, reactions mixed
The Canadian Television Fund recently named most of the people who will make up its board of directors through the coming year, as the oft-embattled outfit moves into the broader mandate of backing both television and new media content.
No new media regulation, says CRTC
The CRTC will stay away from new media for at least another five years, but has sided with the National Film Board in calling for a broader national strategy to keep Canada competitive in the global digital marketplace. The commission said it will continue to exempt from regulation broadcast content that is distributed via the Internet or mobile devices, as it has since 1999, following hearings it held earlier this year towards a possible policy change.
Unions decry lack of Cancon in fall skeds
The networks are in a dead heat for last place when it comes to Cancon this fall, according to a tally of the 2009/10 schedules put out by ACTRA. The actors union, in its all-but-traditional response to the unveiling of the fall schedules, puts the A channels in last place, with one hour of Canadian-made shows per week, followed by CTV and Global, tied with two hours each.
Crews want Toronto studio reopened
Labor activists launched a public campaign to reopen the mothballed Toronto Film Studios facility, to ease a chronic shortage of downtown production space. Bob Hall, president of IATSE Local 873, told reporters gathered outside the locked TFS gates that property owner Rose Corp. and partner SmartCentres should ‘do the right thing’ and reopen the 16 soundstages. TFS closed after Rose opened its Filmport studio in 2008. The partner companies were recently denied an application to build a retail mall on the downtown site.
Two wins for John Adams at Banff
HBO’s John Adams won the grand jury prize as the best of the best at the Banff World Television Awards. The Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning U.S. miniseries about the American president also won the best drama award.
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