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Rabinovitch exiting in 2007
Robert Rabinovitch has announced he will not seek another term as president and CEO of CBC, and will step down from the public broadcaster at the end of 2007, according to The Globe and Mail.
Hot Sheet
The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period March 3-9 and television ratings for the period March 6-12.
Giant proves pretty big for CBC
CBC scored an average of 827,500 viewers with its 2 x 120 Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, its best rating for a miniseries since the pubcaster’s 2005 lockout.
The super chimp spies top of the box
ThinkFilm’s Spymate may have slipped on critical banana peels (see Critical Mass, p. 10), but it sold enough tickets to claim the top of the box office among domestic films for the week starting March 3.
Da Vinci’s leads Cancon pack in U.S.
Da Vinci’s City Hall may have left before its time, but its predecessor has found new life in the U.S.
Christal opens T.O. office
Montreal: Flush with the success of recent releases such as March of the Penguins and Manners of Dying, Montreal-based Christal Films has expanded its operations and opened a Toronto office, to be run by former Telefilm Canada analyst Tony Wosk.
Louise Spickler 1953-2006
Producer and former head of l’Institut national de l’image et du son, Louise Spickler, died from cancer on March 7 in Montreal. She was 53.
Layfield defends new direction at CBC
The new architect of CBC’s primetime schedule says she wants to boost primetime ratings with smarter packaging and promotion, more coproductions with international public broadcasters, more international formats that are bought and produced locally, and more best-of-the-world shows like Coronation Street.
CTF and Telefilm: one for the money
You can’t call it a merger, or a marriage, and many details are still forthcoming, but the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada became a one-board, one-administration entity on March 1, according to CTF president Valerie Creighton.
People
* Claude Galipeau has joined Alliance Atlantis Communications as its SVP of digital media, content group – crossing over from CBC, where he led the pubcaster’s multi-platform Winter Olympics coverage.
Good and bad in Beowulf
Beowulf & Grendel: Despite the many flaws in Sturla Gunnarsson’s latest, the critics heaped praise on at least one thing – the stunning visuals.
Red Green signs off
Steve ‘Red Green’ Smith has hung up his duct tape and said so long to Possum Lodge. With 300 episodes under his tool belt, the veteran comedian ended his 15-year stint as writer, producer and star of CBC’s The Red Green Show when the final episode taped late last year. It airs on April 7.
Film boards helping to explain videogames
The Ontario Film Review Board has teamed with its videogame counterpart in a joint effort to educate parents about ratings systems for the big and little screens.
Fest rockets NSI into 20th year
A three-minute standing ovation for The Rocket, by Charles Binamé, closed the National Screen Institute’s FilmExchange festival on March 4 in Winnipeg, kicking off the NSI’s 20th anniversary year.
SODEC greenlights eight features
Montreal: For its first round of funding for the 2006/07 filmmaking season, Quebec government funder SODEC has announced investment in eight feature projects.
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