REGINA – A relatively new film company in Saskatchewan is competing for a $1 million prize. They plan on making an action/science fiction movie in the province and want to know what Canada thinks before it’s even made.
Rick Anthony, from Regina, is the writer/producer of Patient 62.
“He winds up becoming infected and telekinetic powers that he needs to learn how to use in order to help him find his sister and put an end to the experimentation going on.”
The upcoming film is the only entry from Saskatchewan in CineCoup’s film accelerator contest.
“Our team is made up of people from mostly Regina with one from near Saskatoon as well,” said Anthony.
“Unfortunately, a lot of talent has already left as a result some of the crews we are using already live in Alberta, we’re bringing them back periodically to do work when needed.”
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Patient 62 is the first entry for the Regina production company Factory Factory Entertainment.
“We shot in and around the Regina area, most of it was shot at O’Hanlon’s,” said Anthony.
Factory Factory Entertainment was founded in 2014 by Rick Anthony and Patient 62’s director Bryce Schlam. Its last film Bread Thieves won a rising star award at the 2014 Canada International Film Festival and was produced in Saskatchewan on a budget of $10,000.
The CineCoup contest is a film funding competition where Canadian filmmakers market their projects with concept trailers and other media to the public.
“The next step of the CineCoup competition involves a poster and then another trailer after that, so basically we’re putting out content every week onto the CineCoup site and we’re looking for people to go on the sites, follow along and rate the different content as we release it,” said Anthony.
Over 12 weeks, participants advance through CineCoup’s social web platform and three voting periods to end up with 15 projects. CineCoup selects a final five to pitch their ideas to a panel of industry professionals.
After a short deliberation backstage, one project is selected to receive up to one million dollars in production financing and a release in Cineplex theatres.
Saskatchewan-made WolfCop won the inaugural competition in 2013 and was released in theatres in June 2014.
CineCoup says it couldn’t be more proud of WolfCop and the Saskatchewan team of Lowell Dean, Bernie Hernando, and Hugh Patterson who have helped make it an international success. WolfCop now has a comic book and an action figure.
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Anthony says Patient 62 has been bouncing around the top ten since the beginning of the contest.
“Whoever’s winning it, is largely dependent on how big of a following they are able to draw which is why we need a little bit of hometown help to help push us over the edge,” said Anthony.
“We intend to make the movie either way but if we win we’d be making it on a budget of a million dollars which is obviously much better than we’d be able to do on our own.”
The company is planning on going into production by August and has officially cast a number of roles.
The first round of voting opens Monday evening. The winner for 2015 will be announced at the Banff World Media Festival on June 8.
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