2010 proving more than kind to Manitoba film, TV productions

The TV series Less Than Kind is evidently more than popular, given that HBO Canada has ordered a third season of the Winnipeg-shot sitcom.

The announcement was made Thursday at noon at a ceremony at the Manitoba Legislature confirming the government's previously announced commitment to introduce a 30 per cent production tax credit, the most aggressively competitive tax credit available in Canada.

Both announcements were good news for the film and television production community which, a year ago, was suffering through the doldrums of a particularly slow year.

The year 2010 is proving to be altogether busier with Frantic Films' comedy series Todd and the Book of Pure Evil currently in mid-production and the upcoming theatrical feature Faces in the Crowd, starring Milla Jovovich, starting production in May. The third season of Less Than Kind is scheduled to go before cameras in September and October, according to Phyllis Laing of Buffalo Gal Pictures, the Manitoba producing partner of the series with Toronto's Breakthrough Films.

Ira Levy, the co-founder of Breakthrough, confirmed the second season of the series currently broadcast on HBO Canada has been "doing very, very well."

"We're on the Friday night, HBO's comedy night, and we are the lead-in for Ricky Gervais's new show," Levy said. "They said we are actually a very strong lead-in to his show, which is a cryptic way of saying we're doing quite well."

A half-dozen Winnipeg actors who star in the series were on hand for the announcement, including Brooke Palsson, who was nominated for a Genie award for her work in the first season as Miriam Goldstein, the girlfriend of the show's teen hero Sheldon Blecher (Jesse Camacho).

Laing said the series was responsible for an infusion of millions of dollars in the local economy, but actor Ross McMillan, who plays the tightly wound teacher Mr. Lubbe, affirmed that the show's benefits go deeper than money.

"Whatever tangible advantages it bestows upon the city in terms of money coming in, it expands the idea of Manitoba in the national imagination," he said.

Actor Mike O'Brien, who plays Palsson's dad, Lorne Goldstein, on the series, is best known as Dog River's liquor store owner in the series Corner Gas.

"Corner Gas was very proudly Saskatchewan, and I really think it did bring an idea of Saskatchewan to a lot of Canadians," O'Brien said. "And I hope that Less Than Kind will do the same (for Manitoba)."

Laing said that Buffalo Gal is in preproduction on another feature film titled The Year My Mom Was Dolly Parton, a girl's coming-of-age comedy set in the year 1976.

"It's a Manitoba-Quebec co-production," Laing said of the film, which was written and will be directed by Tara Johns. A blog devoted to the film says the film is about an 11-year-old girl who discovers she was adopted and sets out on a cross-country trek to find her birth mom, while her adoptive mother pursues her. A production blog lists the film's stars as young actress Julia Stone, Macha Grenon (The Barbarian Invasions) and Gil Bellows.

Laing says a couple of thrillers are in the works for Buffalo Gal, including The Haunting in Atlanta, a sequel to The Haunting in Connecticut, scheduled to go before cameras in August. Also on Buffalo Gal's slate is a minimalist thriller titled ATM, scheduled to go before cameras in late September.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 17, 2010 C8