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CTV by a nose on election night
The battle for Canada’s election night eyeballs between CTV and CBC was almost as tightly contested as the one between incoming prime minister Stephen Harper and the outgoing Paul Martin. In the case of the former, CTV emerged victorious on Jan. 23, although some interesting subplots materialized over the five-hour broadcasts.
Eve opens strong, looks to capitalize on Sundance kudos
Although the box-office story remained the same as of Jan. 26, with Les Boys IV and Maurice Richard continuing their dominance in the one-two positions for the seventh straight week - both skating past the $4-million mark – Deepa Mehta’s Water stubbornly hung on to the third spot, reaching rarified English-Canadian film heights with a cumulative total of $2 million.
Hot Sheet
The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period Jan. 20-26 and television ratings for the period Jan. 23-29.
Leo Rice-Barker, 1949-2006
Susan Tolusso is a former editor of Playback.
Briefs
Peace Arch buys kaBOOM
CBC preps multi-platform Olympics coverage
Sports fans looking for their Olympics fix won’t have to look very hard, given the broad range of ways the CBC plans to deliver its coverage of this month’s Winter Games (Feb. 10-26).
Sold!
* CHUM International closed several deals at NATPE for its entertainment and fashion shows – selling the 20th anniversary special of FashionTelevision to the E! and Style channels of E! Entertainment, and its 18 x 30 makeover series Much In Your Space to Donga TV in South Korea. Meanwhile, the Multishow Channel in Brazil picked up the star profilers Born to Be (16 x 30) and The Star Machine (1 x 60), the music history series Evolution (15 x 30) and the hot-or-not Heat Meter (15 x 30). All are original to CHUM’s MuchMusic.
ACTRA honors Polley
Sarah Polley will take home the ACTRA Toronto award of excellence at the union’s annual honors next month for her acting chops and ‘fierce commitment to Canadian culture.’
Filiatrault to be honored at Jutras
Montreal: Veteran actress, writer and director Denise Filiatrault will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award at the Prix Jutra for her decades-spanning career on stage, TV and film.
People
* Patrice Theroux is the new CEO of Motion Picture Distribution, taking over from Victor Loewy, who is now chairman. Theroux is staying on as president and COO. David Lazaarato and Phyllis Yaffe – both of MPD’s parent Alliance Atlantis Communications – have also joined the board.
X-rated
Critics are comparing Guy X – the copro’d story of a solider mistakenly sent to the Arctic – to classic military satires like Catch-22 and M*A*S*H. But not in a good way.
Better ratings for Canadian drama: why a regulatory safety net is essential
Pamela Brand is executive director and CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada.
Playback Readership Poll Results
Maybe the B.C. government, which recently extended the province’s production tax credits for two more years, noted our readers’ collective angst. In response to an online poll in which Playback asked what the impact on the industry in B.C. would be if the province was to reduce production tax credits, a resounding 72% of voters said it would be devastating, while 14% saw the potential fallout as marginal, and another 14% believed the local industry would find other ways to compete.
Corrections
A story in Playback’s Jan. 23 issue incorrectly stated that SODEC’s annual funding allocation from the provincial government was down in 2004/05. While the overall amount SODEC disbursed was indeed down, that was only because it committed to certain projects that ended up not receiving their funding during the fiscal year due to production being postponed.
Playback loses its lion
As Playback was looking to close the issue you are holding, we received the sad – but not unexpected – news that we had lost our good friend and colleague, Leo Rice-Barker. Leo finally lost a valiant two-year battle with cancer at age 56, in effect silencing one of the strongest voices that this publication – or the Canadian film and TV industry, for that matter – ever had.
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