Montreal: U.K.-based Talisman and Montreal digital visual effects producer Tube Studios have announced plans to develop, produce and cofinance a major slate of international film and TV coproductions. In the deal, artists and resources from Ice Storm Digital, a division of Ice Storm Group, have been integrated into Tube.
Talisman, originally a minority shareholder in Ice Storm Group, gained control of the operation when principal production investor Flashpoint (U.K.) ended up in liquidation. Flashpoint’s role was to finance Talisman/Ice Storm productions.

* The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s newly elected board of directors for 2001/02 includes: Vancouver-based art director Andrew Dreskin (The Arrow) as art department representative; Global Television news anchor Peter Kent as broadcast journalist rep; Fireworks Entertainment’s Jay Firestone as producers rep; Northwest Imaging & FX’s visual effects producer as visual effects and animation rep; and filmmaker Michel Poulette (Rock et Belles Oreilles) as vice-chair Quebec.

Montreal: Equinox Entertainment, the filmed entertainment division of La Compagnie France Film, has unveiled a wide-ranging production and development slate with an aggregate budget of $83 million, including a five-picture, $25-million package destined for Atlantic Canada and a multipicture deal with Italian coproducers.
‘There are three types of productions,’ says Michael Mosca, Equinox VP and COO. ‘[There are] the service deals we normally do for the Americans, and also some service deals we might do for the Italians; for instance, we have one for Dino de Laurentiis’ company which we plan to shoot (in September mostly in Toronto) called Christmas in New York. Then we have coproductions, specifically with Italy at this point, but it could be elsewhere, where we have equity. The fourth category is our own [proprietary] productions, which at this time is our development slate.’

With so much competition for eyeballs, the new diginets have to come up with strong branding strategies to stand out from the pack, and with commercials initially expected to be scarce, the nets will have to provide much of their own interstitial material. As a result, local broadcast design shops are firing on all cylinders to make sure all the promotional spots, station IDs, show openings and bumpers are done by next month.

Besson’s Europa Corp. is only in for 10% of the $6.2-million production budget, but Frappier says Besson’s company is committed to investing in the distribution.
‘The problem with Europe isn’t doing the movie, it’s finding a distributor willing to put in the effort, backing and money. And with Europa, we know they will take good care of putting the movie on the screen.’
Frappier traveled to Paris many times to discuss Briand’s script. Europa is managing the film’s sound post-production. ‘We also have a French actress, Julie Gayet, a rising star and fantastic actress.’
Frappier says all the European producers who read the screenplay wanted to coproduce. ‘So for the first time in my life I had a choice. The others were great producers, but the difference [in addition to the distribution deal] is that I’ve known Pierre-Ange Le Pogram, Luc Besson’s associate, for 10 years.’
Frappier (Love and Human Remains, Le Declin de l’empire americaine) estimates that Europa Distribution is second only to Vivendi Universal in terms of leverage in the French theatrical market.

Montreal: As of early August, Telefilm Canada’s international relations office had issued advanced rulings for 56 Canadian film and TV coproductions with 15 countries, representing production budgets of more than $370 million – $128.7 million in film production and $241.1 million in television. The Canadian share of financing is relatively high, 58%.
Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 6, Canadian producers filed 105 coproduction projects with Telefilm, including 60 from Quebec-based producers. Of the 56 projects to receive advance rulings, 23 are from Montreal.
And while coproduction with France and the U.K. in 2001 continues at last year’s record levels, 21 and 22 projects, respectively, and coproduction with China and other Asian countries is increasing, business with other European nations appears to have leveled off or declined.

Montreal: Equity Investment Program funding from Telefilm Canada’s Quebec operations office has helped to fuel production on 500 hours of new TV programming in drama, children’s, documentary, and variety and performance categories. Telefilm says the numbers are subject to change, with a significant number of contracts still to be signed.

Montreal: Three Quebec movies are among 24 films in official competition for this year’s Grand Prix des Ameriques at the Montreal World Film Festival. WFF’s 25th edition, which runs Aug. 23 to Sept. 3, includes more than 380 films from 66 countries, among them the gala opening-night screening of Canadian film L’Ange de Goudron from director Denis Chouinard.
This year’s WFF program includes 221 feature films and 22 new Canadian feature-length films and TV movies, 18 of which will be screened in the festival’s Panorama Canada section.

Montreal: Each year for the past 25, Montreal World Film Festival president Serge Losique and WFF vice-president Daniele Cauchard have undertaken a daunting, year-long search for international films, including films for competition in the Grand Prix des Ameriques. Both attend screenings in Asia, Europe, North America and elsewhere, with the added duty of sorting through literally hundreds of cassettes submitted by hopeful filmmakers and distributors.

The Montreal World Film Market has doubled in size this year and is moving to an attractive, partially open-air location in the Salon Jeanne-Mance in the downtown Wyndham Hotel.
The market activities include a Coproduction Exchange, a section on new technologies, a series of networking workshops with industry players from Latin America, Italy and Germany, organized in association with Telefilm Canada, and timely industry conference and symposium programs.
The market will showcase 25 to 30 stands and some 100 exhibitors, says market director Gilles Beriault.

With the highly anticipated launch of the diginets early this fall, the new television landscape looks only slightly more certain than it did several months ago. Industry sources say a few diginets may even postpone their launch to October or November, when they will not be competing with the roster of new fall shows. In Quebec, the only channel to launch out of the five French-language licences awarded by the CRTC is Reseau Info Sports, set to be on air in late October.
In English Canada, while schedules for the fall were, at press time, almost completed at most of the Category 1 services, many of the Category 2 services were still negotiating cable carriage.
On the other hand: ‘It could be entirely possible that we go up without contracts,’ says CTV president and COO Trina McQueen. ‘Of course the distributor and broadcaster would have to agree to proceed that way. The Category 1s have to launch as if we’re ready, then we can wrangle about contracts during the preview period.’

The Canadian programming budget figures in the following list of Category 1 digital channels are the channels’ best estimates prior to launch, and are quoted in the CRTC licence approvals. The figures for an hour of programming are included where available and are also estimates. Rates will vary depending on the project.

David Cronenberg has wrapped shooting in London, Eng. on his latest psychological thriller of disturbing repute. Spider, which shot for three weeks overseas, is now gearing up to cross the Atlantic to begin its final five-week shoot in Toronto.
A $10-million Canada/U.K. coproduction, the film, produced by Cronenberg, Catherine Bailey and Samuel Hadida, is based on Patrick McGrath’s (The Grotesque) 1991 novel, which the author also adapted for the screen. Set in East End London in the 1970s and the present day, the film tells the story of a deeply disturbed young boy named Spider who sees his father brutally murder his mother and replace her with a prostitute. Convinced he will be murdered next, he hatches an insane plan that ends in tragedy and lands him in prison.
Years later, the adult Spider is released into a halfway house where he stops taking his medication and spirals into a fresh state of madness.

Vancouver: Infinity Films of Vancouver will evolve from a producer of variety and information programming to a creator of drama after a coproduction deal inked during a B.C. Film Commission-sponsored trade mission of local producers to Munich July 2-5.
The Cariboo Runaways, a $5-million family MOW, will be a 50:50 partnership with German producer NDF, says Pat O’Brien, a partner in Infinity with Shel Piercy and Dan Carriere. Production could begin in the spring.
The Infinity principals originally secured the rights to the story in 1993 from children’s writer Sandy Frances Duncan of Gabriola Island. But they didn’t make much headway with the production until the Sharing Stories conference in Edinburgh two years ago. There they pitched NDF and eventually signed a formal deal in Munich.

A raise for U.S. writers, a hike for U.S. actors, a boost for Canadian writers – will Canadian actors join the gang and make it four square?