Cinema Canada (Feb 1982)

Foster and Lehman into packaging with IGF © Wayne&Shustersalestop | M TORONTO International Cinema Funding Inc., a new motion picture production com-~ pany, is concerned with the development of “production packages” in the leisure time industry as well as the over. seeing of subsequent production and marketing of products. The company will act as the general partner in limited partnerships set up to develop packages for specific enter tainment projects which will be sold to companies organized for the actual production of the properties. The company is technically a renaming of The Lujon Corporation, formed in 1979 to handle the mutual production interests of John Foster .and Lewis Lehman, renamed to better reflect their new direction in the entertainment industry. The principals: of International Cinema Funding Inc. are John Foster, president ; Lewis Lehman, executive vice-president in charge of production activities ; and Ted Averbook, secretary-treasurer. The company, operational since October, 1981, is currently packaging a feature film, The Brothers, based on an original screenplay by Lewis Lehman scheduled for production in 1982. The Brothers is a dramatization of events which led to the collapse of a stately mansion on upper Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1947, International Cinema Funding Inc. has several other feature film properties at various stages of development including a country music odyssey/adventure, Truly (a Truckstop Princess); an international caper, The Affairs of the Bikini Widow (a tale of innocence abroad) ; and two comedy films set. in Toronto, The Invasion of the Transvestites, and Free Domination. Porkytobowin March TORONTO —Porky’s, which according to Twentieth Centutury-Fox has just completed “the most successful test engagement” in company history, will open nationwide in Canada March 19 with distribution being handled by a first-ever joint partnership between Twentieth Century-Fox Canada and Astral Films. A Fox-Melvin Simon-Astral Bellevue Pathe production, the film will be distributed in the United States by Fox. Astral usually sub-distributes Fox films in Canada, but according to Astral’s Shelly Schaeffer, the mutual production investment by Fox and Astral required a joint release deal for Canada. "It’s actually worked out better,” said Schaeffer, “since we work with the same people and the same theatres. It’s been to both our advantages.” Porky's is directed by Bob Clark and stars Scott Colomby, Kim Cattrall, and Susan Clark. Quest for fest benefit MONTREAL Quest for Fire, now receiving enthusiastic reviews in France after its preChristmas opening, will have its North American premiere in Montreal Feb. 10. It will be screened then as part of a benefit for the World Film Festival of Montreal, with tickets going at $100 a head. The Canadian-French coproduction was. directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, and produced by I.C.C’s John Kemeny and Denis Heroux. Harry Tracy to Manila MONTREAL Ronald IJ. Cohen’s production Harry Tracy will be Canada’s official entry in the Manila International Film Festival, reports IMC+Isram and Silverstein International who have contracted for the world sales of the film. Alex Massis and Red Silverstein will also handle Ticket to Heaven, Running and Coup d’Etat. Crunchre-edithurts TORONTO — Crunch, Astral Bellevue Pathe’s $2.5 million football comedy filmed in Montreal in 1979, has been picked up by independent American distributor Summa Vista. Directed by Mark Warren, and starring John Vernon, Norman Fell, and Robert Forster, the film was re-edited and retitled The Kinky Coaches And The Pom-Pom Pussycats, yet still encountered limited success with American audiences. An official at Astral Films, which holds the film’s Canadian distribution rights, said the company had no plans to distribute the film theatrically in Canada, but did not rule out a sale to television. The official also said the film’s Canadian title would ’ remain Crunch. Astralpicksup3 Cdn TORONTO — To date, of the three Canadian feature films picked up for distribution by Astral Films in December — Head On, By Design, and Humungus — only Humungus has a release date, Astral’s Shelley Schaeffer told Cinema Canada. Schaeffer said Humungus, a $2 million horror film produced TORONTO — With the recent sale of 26 programs to the Independent Television Network (ITV) in Great Britain, foreign sales of the CBC’s Wayne & Shuster comedy series, reedited andre-packaged into 30minute segments, have surpassed $1,000,000, the CBC announced in early January. Eighty half-hour episodes, compiled from the comedy team’s 14-year output of CBC specials, were put on the foreign sales market in the spring. of 1980. Since then, the package has been sold to 12 countries, . including 23 American mar kets, ranking the package second to The Music of Man in total gross sales, according to the CBC’s 1980-1981 Annual Report. The Wayne & Shuster package also required a special arrangement concerning the payment of royalties, since no existing residual agreement covered the series’ unique format, which combines footage recorded perhaps as long as 14 years ago with more recent material. Dennis O’Neill of CBC Enterprises said deals were negotiated specifically for this series with both ACTRA and the AFM, the performers’ and musicians’ unions, for a two year run world-wide on both conventional broadcast and cable signals. O'Neill added that sales of the series had earned the unions $400,000. by Anthony Kramreither and Mickey Stevenson, directed by Paul Lynch, and filmed in Toronto last summer, would have an April release co-ordinated with an American release by Avco-Embassy. Schaeffer also confirmed that both Head On and By Design were completed and said release dates for each film would be announced sometime this spring. FoxCdagets Melanie TORONTO Melanie, a Simcom Ltd. production, which according to producer Richard Simpson “tested extremely well in CINESYNC INTERNATIONAL its U.S. markets,’ has been picked up for Canadian distribution by Twentieth CenturyFox Canada, marking the first time Fox has picked up a Canadian film for distribution on its native soil. Avco Embassy holds the film’s American distribution rights. Directed by Rex Bromfield, and starring Glynnis O’Connor, Burton Cummings, and Paul Sorvino, the film is scheduled to begin its Canadian theatrical release February 12. Make way for Bantf BANFF — The Banff Television Festival will run next summer, from August 15-21. DOUBLAGE ET POST-SYNCHRONISATION MONTREAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE DUBBING PARIS 1025, rue de Bleury Montréal, Canada H2Z 1M7 Téléphone : (514) 866-8933 Télex : 055-61916 69, rue de Rochechouart 75009 Paris, France Téléphone : 878-16-41 Télex: 270105 Réf. 394 PHILIPPE GARCIA, président NEW YORK 35 West, 90th Street New York 10024 N.Y., U.S.A. Telephone : (212) 873-6390 Cinema Canada February 1982/9