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People
• Canwest Global Communications has folded its digital broadcast and newspaper divisions into one, to be led by digital media chief Graham Moysey. The former Bell Sympatico/MSN exec joined Canwest last June as SVP and GM of digital media, and now reports to Canwest Publishing president and CEO Dennis Skulsky.
Talent
• Harland Williams has been hired to host The TBS Comedy Roadshow, an upcoming vaudeville-themed reality series on the U.S. cable channel. The show features Williams (Half Baked, RocketMan) in a cross-country talent search of regional theaters. The Toronto-born funnyman is due home in summer 2009 to direct Wingman, the $10-million comedy he co-wrote, to be produced by Toronto-based Stardust Pictures. Williams is repped by APA Artists’ Management.
Sold!
• High Fidelity HDTV has landed the exclusive HD rights to 20 original IMAX films, including the nature doc The Secret of Life on Earth, Fires of Kuwait and The Nutcracker.
The Burning Question
There are two sides to every story. One man’s tax bill is another’s insidious attempt at jack-booted censorship. The high loonie is bad for exporters, good for importers. Layoffs have left hundreds unemployed but may be necessary to preserve the industry. So, in the spirit of staying open-minded, we ask:
‘2008 – a bad year or a horrible year?’
Defendor takes flight at Darius
Putting together an A-list cast with an unknown director can be tricky, but Nicholas Tabarrok insists a top-notch script helped pull in talent such as Woody Harrelson and Sandra Oh for Defendor, currently shooting in Toronto and Hamilton, ON.
Quebec comics star in Peepers
A band of voyeurs who rove the rooftops of Montreal peering through windows is the basis for Peepers. The comedy is the latest creative endeavor by Automatic Vaudeville, a local comedy troupe. It’s also the first-time feature effort by producer Andi State, who has worked primarily in talent management with her company Encore Entertainment, handling such actors as Jessica Paré and Tim Post.
Boll, Brightlight pair up again
Brightlight Pictures and Uwe Boll (Dungeon Siege) are back at it, shooting The Storm in Vancouver with former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Luke Perry and The Guard’s Steve Bacic. Perry plays a mysterious stranger who takes refuge with a couple, played by Bacic and Lauren Holly of Navy NCIS, and their young son.
Muse hires Marsters
Muse Entertainment went back to Romania in November with Alien Western, an MOW about giant bugs in the Old West. James Marsters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame stars as an outlaw who leads a small gang of survivors against the alien creatures. Muse, which was in Romania earlier this fall with Sand Serpents, and Media Pro are producing for Sci-Fi Channel and Super Channel.
Let’s make a Dealership
Canwest has ordered a pilot for the one-hour The Dealership, giving the green light to producers Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint (Corner Gas) and Jeff Beesley (Borderline Normal). The project, to be showrun by Andrew Wreggitt (Mayerthorpe, Shades of Black), is billed as a comedic drama about a family-run used car lot stricken by such topical problems as the credit crunch and the world’s economic woes.
Gross, Fichman go with Gunless
The hyphenate hero of the number one Canadian movie and its producer are teaming up again. Paul Gross will star in Gunless, a spoof western for Passchendaele producer Rhombus Media, about an American gunslinger who finds himself at home on the sedate Canadian range.
Lee enters Year of the Carnivore
CBC Radio host and former MuchMusic VJ Sook-Yin Lee has embarked on her directorial debut, Year of the Carnivore. The film began principal photography outside Vancouver last month, with Lee – who ruffled the Corp.’s feathers with a sexually adventurous turn in 2003’s Shortbus – continuing down a provocative path.
Darren Throop: Who is this unassuming man?
Hype about his rapid rise in filmed entertainment has made Entertainment One CEO Darren Throop a star in national business pages. But it was music that quietly built his career over nearly two decades.
E1: Genesis of a powerhouse
1973: Records on Wheels Limited (ROW) launches in Ontario
Patrice Théroux: Swimming with sharks
Patrice Théroux is used to deep water.
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