Canadian Film Digest (Mar 1973)

\4 . ACTRA TORONTO | 105 CARLTON ST 2 ONT ATT THE MANAGER 0474600 Serving the Canadian Film Industry since 1915. Gala Premier planned for Lost Horizon Columbia Pictures will hold a gala premiere for their musical Lost Horizon in Toronto on March i5th. Attending will be producer Ross Hunter, Associate Producer Jacque Mapes, and stars Sally Kellerman, Bobby Van, and James Shigeta. The picture will open at the Odeon Carlton the following day. The premiere performance will be held at the Ontario Film Theatre, located in the Ontario Science Centre. The movie will be shown at 7:30, and after the two and a half hour unreeling a gala, invitational reception wil be held at the nearby Inn on the Park hotel. Among the other events surrounding the opening will be a full round of media promotion for those involved in the production. Assisting Columbia’s publicity person Maureen O’Donnell will be Odeon’s Charles Mason and Glenn Lettau, and freelancer Pat Thompson. A fashion show of clothes inspired by the film will be held at the Sutton Place Hotel, where the guests are staying. A press brunch for members of the out-oftown media, flown to Toronto from across the country, will also be held. _ Mr. Mapes will be Mrs. Nancy Sinatra Sr. and David Crombie of Toronto among other dignitaries. Cinepix Repatriated Cinepix has been returned to Canadian financial control, it was announced by John Dunning, president of the Montreal feature producer and distributor. Kalvex Inc. of New York, a holding company for Allied Artists, bought the company in 1970. At the time, says Dunning, Cinepix was unable to raise enough money in Canada to expand. But during the past five months, sufficient funds have been acquired to regain control. A specific price was not mentioned, but several million dollars were required to gain 51%. Cinepix, now ten years old, began its career by producing several successful skinflicks, among them Valerie and the Initiation. The company thus helped start the Quebec film industry. Recently it has moved into English-language production with Canadian Film Award winner Wedding in White. Recent Quebec efforts have included The True Nature of Bernadette. Reasons for the repurchase were the lack of a sufficiently productive future under Kalvex, plus the fact that the climate for film investment in Canada has improved greatly in recent months. Cinepix also now has a track record to date that will insure financial investment. Dunning said recently in an interview with the Digest that he favors a quota system. The company has Keep it in the Family scheduled for March release, and a horror film planned. Also attending as guests of Mr. Hunter and ; ve been extended to Lost Horizon will be the final film shown at the Odeon Carlton. The Odeon flagship house is scheduled for demolition about June 30. The film will open in Montreal and Vancouver at the end of March, and follow throughout the rest of the country during April and May. Lost Horizon also stars Peter Finch and Liv Ullman. Bert Bacharach and Hal David wrote the music, and the film was directed by Canadian Charles Jarrott. ey, 5 1 . F x | ; rut | : _ Sally Kellerman will attend the premiere of Lost Horizon. Da NR HO WY\\ & a James Shigeta INSIDE THIS ISSUE Departments : Canadian Box Office Statistics 14 Market Report 2 Domestic Notes 3 International Scenes 14 Editorial 4 Dollars and Sense Letters to the Editor 4 Pre-View 5 Classified Ads 15 Casting 15 Books 15 Visitors 6 Movie Quiz No. 5: Academy Awards Academy and other Awards Alfthe Nominations — 8 What the Others Said 8 Michael Caine 11 The First Three Best Actresses: Canadian 9 Previous Winner Saul Chaplin Budge Crawley Jan-Michael Vincent Jean-Pierre Cassel Jack Lemmon 10 Canadian Film House Sold to Elkins Group Crone to remain as head Film House, the second largest processing company in Canada, has been sold to a multimillion dollar conglomerate that includes former Ontario trade minister Robert Macauley and Hillard Elkins, Broadway and movie producer. Robert Crone, founder and president of Film House, will remain in management for five years, and is expected to take an active part in acquisitions the company has planned. President of the new firm, made up of International Bond and Equity, Life Investors Ltd., and Elkins Productions, ‘Canada Ltd., is former marketing consultant Dick Smitten, 32. He said plans for the company include acquisition of a special effects firm, recording firm, music publishers, video-tape producer, equipment supplier, and distribution wing, resulting ina complex which would perform all the functions vf 4 major studio without the overhead, No firm names were mentioned. The capital backing in the complex is reputed to be $6.5 million. Film House, bought for a reported $2.25 million, is to be the first acquisition. Film House was begun by Crone ten years ago when he was 30. He was a freelance cameraman at the time, globetrotting for the CBC and others. He had installed a small sound-mixing facility in his basement, and when the CBC program Telescope needed his facilities, he moved them to an office and called it Film House. The company now houses four and a half floors, and last year made $86,000 profit, after taxes, on sales of $2.75 million dollars. One hundred employees, facilities for processing, sound-mixing and equipment rental are some of the services Film House provides. But Crone himself has always provided more to the Canadian film industry itself. Besides serving as Co-chairman and as a prime mover behind the Canadian Film Awards, he has given office space and much encouragement to many newcomers in the business. He has also built Film House into one of the most respected processing firms in the world. Internationall films are broughtto Toronto constantly to be made and edited here, among them Waterloo, not to mention many features produced in Canada. He himself received an Etrog for his personal recording work on the ‘sound for Face Off. Of all the companies included in the merger, Life Investors Limited is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The plans seem to be for a public solicitation of funds to finance Elkins’ film projects, which include The Rothchilds, $100 Misunderstanding (to be shot in Toronto this summer), and possible film from rights to other properties which Elkins owns, among them the Sammy Davis hit, Golden Boy. How many of these fit into the company’s plans for the immediate future is not known. Crone has said that he would like to see a more active role in Canadian production. The merger, he says, will give Film House stability for expansion. Not to mention his own reported down payment of $750,000. The Film House purchase is subject to approval in April by shareholders of the other two companies. Life Investors is also arranging for a $500,000 mortgage to finance Film House expansion. ACTRA Brief proposes more Cdn content in all media The members of the Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) are being presented with a draft policy statement calling for much higher Canadian content in television, radio, commercials and feature movies. The report, entitled A Policy for the Seventies, was prepared by the ACTRA executive, and is being mailed to the 4,000 members of the Union. Comments are being solicited until May 15. Canadian content is not the report’s sole concern, however. It also calls for changes and new initiatives in all aspects of performing entertainment. Recommendations include: — Canadian content in TV should be increased to 85% for the CBC and, for CTV and other private operators, from 50% today to 60% by 1975 and 70% by 1980. —a levy on cable TV systems which now pick up network programs free. — a portion of cable’s fees, syndication income and other service revenue should be placed in a fund to develop Canadian programing, research and development. — only Canadians should be employed in radio and TV commercials except for internationally known performers. — imported commercials should be banned, except those made outside of Canada by Canadians, using foreign locations. — elimination of commercials on CBC radio and TV. — long term rather than single year financing for the CBC — Canadian content in radio should be raised from the present 30% to 50%, and a more stringent definition of a Canadian record should be: performed and written by Canadians and produced in Canada. — an annual new play festival should be established Film proposals include exhibition Specific recommendations.-r-aerdirg_ film include: NG ; — CFDC grants and investments should be made only to films written and produced by and using only Canadian talent — a Canadian Film Marketing Board should be established to deal with export of Canadian movies —a practical system of distribution for these movies within the country should be developed. Cinemas — if necessary a publicly owned chain —andon TV without commercial interruption, or any other means necessary to insure that Canadian product is available to the entire populace. — a special fund should be established to be used to purchase film rights to Canadian novels, plays and other script sources, and to pay for adaptations from these and to finance the writing of scripts by competent Canadian writers.