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Docs
Perrier, Powers get crackin’
Briefly
* David Cronenberg is on board as executive producer for the adaptation of his 1988 thriller Dead Ringers into a series for HBO, and is attached to direct a pilot written by Wesley Strick (Cape Fear).
Cineplex’s Jacob is Canada’s reluctant film mogul
Few executives have commanded a position of power on par with Cineplex Entertainment president and CEO Ellis Jacob, Playback’s 2005 Person of the Year. His company’s surprising $500-million midsummer acquisition of its larger rival, the Viacom-owned Famous Players, has vaulted the Onex-owned exhibition house into rarefied territory.
Cineplex gets Famous: Diary of a blockbuster deal
August 2004: Cineplex Galaxy president and CEO Ellis Jacob gets wind of the potential sale of Viacom’s Famous Players theater assets. He goes down to meet with Viacom in New York as a representative of parent company Onex Corporation. Viacom says it is considering the sale, but requires two things from a potential buyer: ‘Certainty and cash’
A history of film exhibition in Canada
*Excerpted primarily from Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Film, edited by Wyndham Wise and published by the University of Toronto Press, 2001.
Pubcaster deals with fallout from labor conflict
After a staff lockout by management, the CBC is finding that rebuilding worker morale and viewer loyalty is about as difficult as extracting concessions during crunch contract negotiations.
Inaugural New Montreal FilmFest may be last
Montreal: Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Top stories of 2005
The following are results of an online poll in which Playback asked readers: What is the biggest industry story of 2005?
Toronto megastudio moves forward in ’05
Years of wrangling and fist-shaking came to an end in September with the stroke of a pen, when Ken Ferguson signed the 99-year contract to build and operate the so-called ‘megastudio’ in Toronto – silencing competitors and critics who had opposed the deal, and, it is hoped, laying the groundwork for a studio complex that will be on par with the biggest and best in the world.
Quebec drama tops the box and eyes Oscar
Montreal: Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée can’t quite get over it. C.R.A.Z.Y., his $8-million labor of love, has become the Canadian success story of 2005, and might just extend its winning streak into 2006, given that it’s Canada’s selection in the best foreign-language film category for the Academy Awards.
History reconnects director with mainstream audiences
About one month before A History of Violence played the Toronto International Film Festival, veteran Toronto director David Cronenberg, with tongue firmly in cheek, told Playback that he expected his new film would be an ‘unqualified hit.’ But that proved right, and 2005 will be remembered as a year in which Canada’s 62-year-old Baron of Blood made a dramatic return to the spotlight of popular culture.
Quebec cinema keeps 5% B.O. goal on track
The five-year, 5% box-office goal targeted by then-heritage minister Sheila Copps in 2000 was achieved in 2005, contingent on results for the last seven weeks of the year. Problem is, the reliance on Quebec cinema to almost singlehandedly reach that goal has become even greater.
The best of Quoted… morsels of wisdom uttered by industry players in 2005
Two sides to Ceeb story
Gold for Canada
Canadian viewers watching the 2005 Academy Awards on Feb. 27 witnessed local filmmaker Chris Landreth win the Oscar for best animated short for Ryan. The groundbreaking 3D film tells the story of troubled former National Film Board animator Ryan Larkin, and is based around interviews with Larkin himself. ‘I couldn’t have asked for anything better,’ Landreth said of the culmination of many months of flying around the world promoting the film and collecting awards. Ryan is a copro between Copper Heart Entertainment and the NFB
Stiller pic bolts Montreal for cheaper FX
Ben Stiller didn’t order Twentieth Century Fox’s A Night at the Museum to relocate from Montreal to Vancouver. Special effects were to blame.
Fox spokesman David Lux says producers of the effects-heavy comedy – in which a museum security guard, played by Stiller, awakens a curse that brings to life animals and insects on display – chose to be near Vancouver post houses that have serviced other Fox movies, notably the second and third X-Men movies.
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