• C IN E MAt; • thirteen-part series, one hour ture series to be produced with on CBC the first week in June. SHOOT and one half-hour in length. the assistance of the AMPDC, by Linda Kupecek Superchannel and CBC, is The CAN PRO •awards , held in • • • climbing towards a March '85 Lethbridge, attracted over zoo Spring has been accompanied Nick Bakyta and Gayle Helfrick Wendy Wacko, producer of the shoot. The Mary Shaffer pro­ people from stations across by a renaissance of feature acti­ of Tinsel Media in award-winning Challenge: ject (a feature based on the . CF AC and CFCN-TV in vity in Alberta, with several have River of Bones on course the Canadian Rockies, has been Banff pioneer) which Wacko , won three awards projects close to production. In for a June shoot, with pre-pro­ invited by the BBC to co-pro­ has had on the back burner for each .. . Meanwhile, the' City of addition to out-of-province duction already in progress. duce Mountain Men, part of a a number of years, has now Calgary is debating the merits possibilities, one local produc­ Tinsel Media has also joined prestigious mini-series. Wacko taken priority as a spring '86 of hosting the Miss Universe tion is said to be ready to go. hands across the country in a Productions will b.e responsible shoot. Doris McCarthy: Heart pageant (to be broadcast on Snowballs, a $1 million ski co-production deal with Atlan­ for one hour to be shot in of a Painter, a one-hour docu­ CFCN) ... Rumours whisper that comedy will start shooting tis Films of Toronto. The :two' October '85. Meanwhile, Wacko drama, is being screened at Merv Griffin may be a special May 1 for four weeks, says companies will co-produce two has several projects cooking Canada House in London, and ~est at the 1984 Banff Televi­ producer Larry Ryckman of from her office in Jasper. The Great Rocky Mountain sion Festival, taping several Calgary. He claims the film, Striker's Mountain, an adven- • Relay Race will be broadcast shows at the event. fIDanced entirely locally through private offerings, has all the money in place after a six­ month effort. ~yckn'lan lists the following personnel: Ray Ar­ senault (King of Kensington, etc.) as director ; David Kelly (camera operator on Return of the Jedi) as D.O.P. ; John Scott as pro~uction manager ; Mike Baker as co-producer and 1st a.d. ; Frank Griffiths on sound; and John Blackie as art direc­ tor. Ryckman also named Neil Gordon, Alex Tadich, Michelle Stirling, Jim Woodland and himself as screenwriters, and Jackson Davies, Michael Scott and Celine Lockhart as major cast. "Snowballs coincidentally rhymes with Meatballs" says Ryckman, saying it is intended to be a Meatballs or Porky's on skis, but "clean fun" with no nudity and a PG rating. "This is one of the funniest scripts I've ever worked on", says writer Stirling, adding with a chuckle, "with the possible exception of my own project, Studhorse Man" Snowballs plans to shoot for three weeks at Sunshine Village and one week in Calgary. • Alberta played major and minor roles in two recent segments of CBC's For the Record series. Change of Heart, a drama pro­ duced by Anne Frank and di­ rected by Anne Wheeler of Edmonton, was shot on location in Vermilion. Rough Justice, a tough well-paced story about ·the maze of the legal system as Focus on this scenic Canadian it affects a young girl attacked ' by a child molester, was written by Calgary Herald writer Don province of sunny ~kies, low costs, Truckey, who once covered the court beat. and tax-saving advantages.

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