Although this summer will not match the year 2000’s production frenzy, shooting in Ontario is warming up with the arrival of the sunny season.
On the series front, Toronto’s Fireworks Entertainment, L.A.’s Tribune Entertainment, France’s M6 and Germany’s Tele-Munchen started rolling in early June at Toronto’s Cinespace Studios on Adventure Inc., a new one-hour action drama. Previous collaborations between Fireworks and Tribune include Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda and Mutant X.
Adventure Inc. stars Michael Biehn (The Art of War, The Terminator) as a legendary explorer who heads up a team of thrill-seekers in Beauport, NC who take on any challenge that comes their way. Their various missions take them around the world, with future episodes to be shot in Marseilles, France, and the U.K. Cast also includes Quebec’s Karen Cliche (Galidor) and Jesse Nilsson (The Skulls).

Samuel, the first French-language drama to be produced in New Brunswick and Radio-Canada’s first major dramatic production made outside Quebec, wrapped 36 days of shooting on June 10.
‘This country is so multicolored with so many regions and it’s vitally important for people from New Brunswick and Acadians to see themselves on the air,’ says series producer Sam Grana, who cowrote the original story with Robert Hache. Guy Fournier penned the script with Mario Bolduc, Andre Melancon and Pierre Gang.
The $4.4-million miniseries (four one-hours), coproduced by Moncton’s Sam Grana Productions and Cite-Amerique out of Montreal, tells the story of a man who dreams of being a fisherman until a terrible storm claims his father at sea.

Vancouver: After the drama of a last-minute funding reprieve from Telefilm Canada, The New Beachcombers MOW goes into four weeks of production July 8.
The $3-million production, commissioned as part of CBC’s 50th anniversary and set to air in October or November, will return to the Sunshine Coast village of Gibsons 11 years after the Canadian classic series went off air, this time to save the famed Molly’s Reach restaurant from the evil doings of greedy condo developers.
While the characters created by the late Bruno Gerussi and Robert Clothier will not be recast, actor Jackson Davies (a coproducer with original series cocreator Marc Strange and Soapbox Productions’ Nick Orchard) returns as Constable John along with new addition Dave Thomas, who is the proprietor of Molly’s Reach. Vancouver actor Deanna Milligan is one of a trio of new younger characters that, with the success of the MOW, could provide the fresh blood for a new Beachcombers half-hour series.

Montreal: Cineflix is making definite headway in the U.K. with the opening of a new distribution office in London, Cineflix International, headed by managing director Paul Heaney, and the sale of the six-hour factual tripartite coproduction Mayday to Channel 5 and commissioning editor Dan Chambers. Discovery Networks Europe is expected to take a second window, says Cineflix president Glen Salzman.
Mayday explores the science of aeronautic technology and air safety through the recreation and investigation of near misses and major crashes. Cineflix’s Andre Barro is executive in charge of production. Bryn Higgins of Stone City Productions in the U.K. is series producer. The French producer is Bernard Vaillot of Galaxie Presse. Taping is slated to begin in September in North America and Europe. Mayday is a majority Canadian (51%) coproduction budgeted at $2.5 million.

It’s remarkably rare for the Supreme Court of Canada to hear a copyright case – it’s been 12 years since the last one.
Yet in this increasingly digital world, copyright, and who’s entitled to control it, has never been a more critical issue. So any guidance coming from our highest court needs to be heeded.
Ironically, the issue before the Supreme Court in Theberge v. Galerie d’Art du Petit Chaplain Inc. revolved around copyright pertaining to the static beaux arts – paintings and lithography reproductions – neither being digital by their very nature.

Banff, AB: As one cabdriver puts it: ‘If you don’t like the weather in Banff, wait five minutes.’ The same can be said about the topics being discussed at Banff2002. If you don’t like the subject matter…
Indeed, the themes of the Banff Television Festival are varied.
In the sessions, the talk ranges from the importance of public broadcasting, to the importance of Cancon, to the importance of John Cleese. But out on the veranda at the Banff Conference Centre and in the delegates lounge, it remains business as usual.
‘It’s the same every year,’ says VisionTV cofounder Peter Flemington. ‘It’s all funding; all deals.’

With Atom Egoyan’s support, distribution deals with Odeon Films and TFI International, a stellar cast featuring Sarah Polley, a non-union crew, some Hollywood-caliber gear, a $2-million budget and a little luck, writer/director Peter Wellington’s latest feature has the promise of something big.

Vancouver: It’s not meant to be a horror show, but the annual federal production funding results seem for many producers to be getting scarier each year – with the ultimate fright that that money may vanish altogether.
Take for instance the recent 2002 Equity Investment Program results from Telefilm Canada – disappointing more producers this year despite a $20-million bonus shifted from the Canadian Television Fund’s Licence Fee Program. While many fledgling or unproven proposals won’t get EIP or LFP this time, programs that had made the cut in years past – Paradise Falls (Breakthrough) or Jinnah On Crime (Force Four), for example – are also out of luck today.

Content producers and rights holders may have cause for celebration as a loophole in the Copyright Act that has given way to the likes of iCraveTV and JumpTV may soon be closed.
Bill C-48, an act to amend section 31 of the Copyright Act, had its third reading in the House of Commons on June 18 and was passed unanimously, although is still to be approved by the Senate. Section 31 pertains to the compulsory licence that allows retransmission of copyrighted works without permission from copyright holders through royalties set by the Copyright Board.

Montreal: Questioning recent directives and growing performance demands, the country’s principal distributors association is distancing itself from Canada Feature Film Fund policies and the fund’s primary goal of reaching 5% national market share for domestic movies by 2005.

Credo closes its doors

You turn on American TV and there seems to be little worth watching. You turn on Canadian TV and there seems to be little worth watching. While the reasons are quite different, the results often have a similar quality: non-compelling and unoriginal programming.

In Playback’s May 27 CBC tribute, Rae Hull was credited as executive producer of ZeD. Hull is, in fact, the executive in charge of production for ZeD, while McLean Mashingaidze-Greaves is ZeD’s exec producer.

Banff, AB: Citing a need for ‘greater fairness, transparency and consistency,’ Telefilm Canada’s executive director Richard Stursberg announced a series of measures at Banff2002 aimed at improving his organization’s decision-making processes and overall performance.

* Music industry executive Richard Camilleri has been appointed CanWest Global Communications’ new chief operating officer responsible for the integration of TV, radio, print, advertising and interactive operations. He is former president of Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) and more recently was chairman and CEO of Arius3D, a 3D imaging company.