Turturro as good as signed to star in locally shot Fear X

The Many Trials of One Jane Doe tells the true story of a Toronto rape victim who discovered police knew that a serial rapist had been staking specific apartment blocks in downtown Toronto and failed to warn the single women residents, apparently because they were afraid the rapist would be scared away.

“She spent eight years in court and finally succeeded in having police policy changed,” says Kim Todd, whose company Original Pictures will be producing the film in collaboration with Toronto-based producer Bernie Zukerman and his company Indian Grove Productions. Zukerman’s credits include the fact-based telefilms Love and Hate: The Colin Thatcher Story and Conspiracy of Silence, the story of Helen Betty Osborne’s murder.

Budgeted at $3.5 million, the film will be directed by Jerry Ciccoritti (Chasing Cain) and will be broadcast on CBC. Local casting will commence in February.

Todd and Vancouver-based producer Beth Stewart worked together on the Winnipeg-lensed series The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, and collaborated on this similarly themed concept, which will shoot 26 episodes in and around Melbourne.

Todd says 20 of the 26 half-hour episodes were written by Canadians, and the post-production will be done in Canada, too.

Aimed at “tweens” between 8 and 14, the show has a broadcast deal in the U.K. as well as Australia. It will begin to air in Canada on YTV in March.

“It always struck me as odd that you could rent short films from the States, but you can’t see Winnipeg Film Group films,” Garrity says. “There’s one video store in Toronto that has a selection of WFG films. You can rent early Guy Maddin and John Paizs short films there, but Winnipeggers have been left in the lurch.”

Garrity spent the past month attempting to rectify that situation somewhat by putting this DVD together. Included on the disc is Paul Suderman’s Brothers and Inertia producer Brendan Sawatsky’s short film Purgatory. If the DVD rents well, Garrity aims to compile more shorts from the WFG’s extensive catalogue for further DVD releases.

Simply e-mail me the answers to the following questions before noon today (no late entries, and one entry per person, please) along with your name and daytime phone number. My e-mail address is randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Winners will be notified by 4 p.m. today and must pick up their prizes at the Free Press reception desk at 1355 Mountain Ave. no later than 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.

1. In what film did David Carradine portray Woody Guthrie?

2. What Magnum P.I. star played the legendary bluesman Leadbelly in the film of the same name?

3. The title O Brother Where Art Thou? was the name of a socially conscious film planned by comedy director Joel McCrae in what 1941 satire by Preston Sturges?

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca