Toronto, November 1, 2006 – Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund is pleased to announce funding offered to 36 projects through its Equity Investment Program, Script Development Program and Family Film Program.
The slate features 28 English-language script development projects and 8 equity investments including Paul Gross’ project, Passchendaele, which was supported by The Fund from the development stage to equity. A personal story for Gross, the feature film is based on the experiences of his grandfather, a soldier in the First World War.
“We’re very excited to support this new line-up of homegrown feature film and television projects. While each project has a distinct story, they all embrace the key ingredients of compelling film and television entertainment – powerful storytelling, creative talent and extraordinary imagination,” said John Galway, President, English-language Program, Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund.
Projects approved this quarter include:
EQUITY INVESTMENT PROGRAM
ALL HAT, New Real Films Inc., Screenwriter: Brad Smith. Based on the Brad Smith novel. An ex-con returns to his rural Ontario roots and outwits a corrupt and wealthy horse owner trying to take over local farms.
BREAKFAST WITH SCOT, Miracle Pictures Inc., Screenwriter: Sean Reycraft. This comedy explores how it feels to be a boy who doesn’t quite fit into the role society has created for him.
EMOTIONAL ARITHMETIC, Triptych Media Inc./BBR Productions 2006 Inc., Screenwriters: Jefferson Lewis/Paolo Barzman. Based on the Matt Cohen novel. A father figure and two orphans who survive the Holocaust are separated. When they meet 30 years later, they discover that their bonds are stronger than ever.
NORMAL, Raven West Films Ltd./Submission Film Productions Inc., Screenwriters: Travis McDonald/Carl Bessai. Four people involved in a tragic car accident try to cope with the aftermath of the event and its effect on their lives.
PASSCHENDAELE, Rhombus Media Inc./Whizbang Films Inc./The Damberger Film & Cattle Company Inc., Screenwriter: Paul Gross. A wounded war hero comes home after valiantly suffering the miseries of love and combat in the First World War, only to return to the front in order to protect the son of the woman he loves.
THE YELLOW WOMAN, Cinémaginaire Inc., Screenwriter: Steve Galluccio. A woman struggles to cope with her mother’s illness and death by investigating the life of her daughter, who is trying to find solace in a series of anonymous sexual encounters.
SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
These projects are at various stages of development. The Program’s recipients are:
STORY OPTIONING PHASE
AFTERIMAGE, Susan C. Rynard Inc., Screenwriter: Su Rynard. Novel by Helen Humphreys. The arrival of a young Irish maid at the country house of a freethinking, aristocratic Victorian couple creates tension culminating in tragedy.
CITY OF ICE, Spectra 5 V Film Inc., Screenwriter: Trevor Ferguson. Novel by John Farrow. A brilliant but unconventional Montreal detective uncovers a massive and deadly conspiracy between two rival biker gangs and the Russian mafia.
THE FEARSOME PARTICLES, Slanted Wheel Entertainment Inc., Screenwriter: Michael Healey. Novel by Trevor Cole. With an uncertain future and an unstable economy in war-stricken Afghanistan, a contemporary family confronts a series of personal, professional and psychological crises.
GEORGE & RUE, Sienna Films Inc., Screenwriter: Vanz Chapman. Novel by George Elliott Clarke. Two Africadian brothers, who in 1949 were driven by poverty and circumstance, murder a white taxi driver and are hanged nine months later for their crime.
LIES OF SILENCE, Infinity Features Development Inc., Novel by Brian Moore. A man leaves his wife for his mistress, only to find that his life becomes further complicated when he is taken hostage and becomes the victim of a terrorist attack.
TRACING IRIS, Tracing Iris Productions Inc., Screenwriters: Graham Ludlow/Kelly Rowan. Novel by Genni Gunn. A young woman uncovers family secrets and lies when she reluctantly returns to her small hometown after her father’s second wife is found dead under mysterious circumstances.
FIRST DRAFT
CRETE ON THE HALF SHELL, Yarmadillo Films Inc., Screenwriters: Sharon Corder/Jack Blum. Based on the Byron Ayanoglu novel. This sunny adventure follows a disgraced Montreal restaurant critic who is enticed by a wildly unpredictable Greek chef into starting a restaurant on the island of Crete.
THE LEPER’S BELL, Screen Siren Pictures Inc., Screenwriter: Simon Barry. In a Middle Eastern country suffering from civil unrest, a man is prepared to manipulate the truth in the pursuit of success and an interesting life – even though it means becoming the very thing he was brought up to scorn.
REBEL WITHOUT BORDERS, CD Films Inc., Screenwriters: Christian Duguay/Thom Richardson. Based on the Marc Vachon autobiography by Marc Vachon and François Bugingo. This story follows the life of a troubled youth orphaned on the streets of Montreal who goes on to become a logistician for Doctors Without Borders, covering the volatile political hot spots in Africa, Iraq and Bosnia.
SECOND DRAFT
CARA AL SOL (MY FACE TO THE SUN), Richard Cooper Television Productions Ltd., Screenwriter: Richard Cooper. Taking place in 1961 Havana, this political thriller tells the story of a Canadian Embassy official whose affair with a Cuban lounge singer is part of a blackmail scheme set up by two KGB agents.
KISSED BY LIGHTNING, Full Regalia Enterprises Inc./Turtlenight Productions Inc., Screenwriter: Shelley Niro. When a beautiful, heart-broken woman decides to take a chance on love again, she soon discovers that her soul has no boundaries.
THE LONG HAUL, WAM Film & TV Inc., Screenwriter: Howard Wiseman. A Winnipeg man narrates the story of how he got into trouble and ended up in a motel room with an exotic dancer from Kiev.
THE NEED TO KNOW, Screenwriter: Cameron Patterson. A reporter ignites a volatile chain of events when his adoption search turns up an expatriated birth father embroiled in the grisly murders of two security service agents in 1963.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, Keatley Entertainment Ltd., Screenwriter: Shelley Eriksen. Based on the Catherine Bush novel. A young woman steps out from the safely removed world of war studies to engage in the real and dangerous world of love and refugees.
THE SECRET, Whizbang Films Inc., Screenwriter: Steve DiMarco. The ghost of a woman’s husband pays conjugal visits and becomes increasingly jealous and interfering when his wife dates other men, making it difficult for her to hide a secret she has been keeping.
SHED DEVIL, Screenwriter: Sean Garrity. A rural man who has vowed never to ignore the pleas of anyone in need, goes to his shed one day and stumbles upon Satan, who asks him for shelter.
THE SPIDER OF BUMBA, Galafilm Inc., Screenwriter: Elyse Gasco. Based on the Elyse Gasco novel. A young girl is abducted by a man claiming to be her biological father and they embark on a cross country road trip.
ST. JOHN’S WEST, Newfound Films Inc., Screenwriter: Justin Simms. An aggressive political campaign manager who loses her job is given a second chance when she’s assigned to a re-election campaign in St. John’s West.
FINAL DRAFT
FISHBOWL, Cité-Amérique Inc., Screenwriter: Bob Mandl. A man confronting a mid-life crisis takes a hit out on his own life, but regains his will to live through his relationship with his teenage daughter.
THE LAZARUS SISTERS, Equinoxe Productions Inc., Screenwriter: Andrew Pyper. When three sisters return to their childhood home for their father’s funeral, their reunion summons the ghost of their brother who went missing 18 years ago.
TWO WORLDS, Instinct Films Inc., Screenwriter: Paolo Barzman. Based on a true story, a young Jewish classical violinist leads a double life in rural Quebec during the Second World War and convinces a Quebecois folk band to hire him so that he can pay for his parents’ passage from Nazi-occupied Germany.
POLISH & PACKAGING
STONE OF DESTINY, Destiny Films Inc., Screenwriter: Charles Martin Smith. Based on the Ian Hamilton novel. Four Scottish university students make off with the Stone of Destiny housed in London’s Westminster Abbey. They arrive back in Scotland to national celebrations honouring the return of the ancient Coronation Stone of the Scots taken by the English 700 years ago.
FAMILY FILM PROGRAM - EQUITY COMPONENT
FEATURE FILM
FINN ON THE FLY, Amaze Film and Television Inc., Screenwriters: Teza Lawrence/Michael Souther/Kellie Benz/Mark Jean. When a science experiment goes wrong, an unhappy boy’s dog transforms into a human being, changing the boy’s life forever.
TELEVISION SERIES
NATURALLY SADIE – SEASON 3, Decode Entertainment Inc., Lead Screenwriter: Brent Piaskoski. A “tween” series about a 13-year-old girl whose quest to understand the world often gets her into trouble when the behavioural experiments she performs on the people around her go awry.
FAMILY FILM PROGRAM - SCRIPT COMPONENT
FIRST DRAFT
DANNY, KING OF THE BASEMENT, Instinct Films Inc., Screenwriters: Tim Southam/David Craig. A streetwise 10-year-old boy learns the difference between fantasy and reality and begins to deal with his real problems.
SECOND DRAFT
CHANGING STRIPES, Chesler/Perlmutter Productions Inc., Screenwriters: Doug Barber/James Phillips. A snooty English family adopts an orphaned boy from India, only to discover that a Bengal tiger is included in the deal.
THE TURK, Locomotion Films Inc., Screenwriter: Doug Taylor. A man known to build fantastic machines, which has earned him the admiration of the queen, is forced to flee Vienna with his wife and his latest creation, a chess playing automaton called The Turk.
FINAL DRAFT
IZA BELLA, Productions La Fête Inc., Screenwriters: Richard Schlesinger/Florin Chevorchian/Scott Faulconbridge. A 12-year-old circus performer’s monkey is kidnapped by the stage manager and some clowns, who use it to steal a rare diamond in a bid to save their circus.
TWELVE, Shadow Shows Inc., Screenwriter: Lanan Adcock. Based on The Brothers’ Grimm fairytale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Determined to keep their nightly visits to a magical realm of dance a secret, 12 spirited princesses outwit a domineering king, a nasty prince, oppressive guards and some very temperamental enchanted forests to restore harmony, happiness and love to an unjust kingdom.
POLISH & PACKAGING
FINN ON THE FLY, Amaze Film and Television Inc., Screenwriters: Teza Lawrence/Michael Souther/Kellie Benz/Mark Jean. When a science experiment goes wrong, an unhappy boy’s dog transforms into a human being, changing the boy’s life forever.
The Equity Investment Program, funded by Astral Media’s Viewers Choice, was established in 1991 to invest in the production of quality Canadian dramatic movies made for theatrical release and/or pay television. The Script Development Program was created to assist in the development of quality Canadian feature film scripts. The program receives a yearly contribution of $1.3 million from Astral Media’s The Movie Network.
The Family Film Program, sponsored by Astral Media’s Family Channel, finances the development and production of high-quality films for children, youth and family audiences. The Fund also has an equity investment component within its Family Film Program, which invests in feature films, as well as TV series with a license from Family Channel.
The script development applications are reviewed each quarter by the English-language Committee of Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund that includes Suzette Couture, Camelia Frieberg, Melanie Friesen, John Galway, Shane Kinnear, Bryn Matthews and Domenic Vivolo.
Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund/Le Fonds Harold Greenberg is a national funding organization established to contribute to the development and production of high-calibre film and television productions. Supported by Astral Media, The Fund/Le Fonds has invested $50.7 million in the Canadian film and television industry since its inception in 1986. For more information, please visit www.astralmedia.com.
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For more information, please contact Lila Karim at 416-956-8680 or lkarim@tv.astral.com.