CTV has renewed the Brett Butt Comedy Series for a second season, and shooting will start up later in September here in Vancouver.

The series stars Corner Gas’ Nancy Robertson, who plays the role of Millie Upton, a children’s author with anger management issues, which are referred to as “hiccups,” giant outbursts, which could be described as a giant fit of depression. These outbursts are immediate, so they are prone to happen at any time. After being told that she needs some help controlling her anger issues, Millie finds a man named Stan Dirko (Brent Butt), whom she hires as her life coach.

Except, perhaps, when those eyes are located in the same head but are being directed by a different, darker part of the same brain.

Such is the delicate dysfunction afflicting Det. Ben Sullivan (Callum Keith Rennie) the confused cop at the centre of the new Canadian-made cop drama Shattered, which premières Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Global.

Sullivan is a tough, smart, experienced crime solver who does things mostly by the book but occasionally lapses into aggressive and borderline-dangerous behaviours that could just as easily ruin a case as solve one.

And the problem, as quickly becomes clear in the series première, is that when Ben does that crazily out-of-character stuff, it isn’t really Ben doing it. It’s a long dormant but recently resurfaced alternate personality called Sam, who has picked a stressful time in his host’s life to start reasserting himself and taking over ever-larger chunks of Ben’s consciousness.

Sunday’s opener begins with the arrival of Ben’s new partner, Det. Amy Lynch (Camille Sullivan), in the homicide unit. Before she has time to unload her personal belongings, the phone rings and Sullivan asks if she’s ready to tackle her first case.

In minutes, the freshly united pair is careening across town to an old warehouse where it’s believed a serial killer may be hiding. As they work their way through the dark, abandoned building (a staple location in cop-show pilot episodes, it seems), they encounter the body of the killer’s latest victim.

Before they can finish examining the corpse for the telltale markings that will confirm the killer’s identity, a figure bolts out of the darkness and attacks Sullivan. As the scuffle escalates, he shouts for his new partner to use her firearm — and she does, with lethal effect.

But it soon becomes apparent that the suspect didn’t have a gun, as Sullivan claimed, and Lynch doesn’t understand why he can’t recall ordering her to shoot. As the forensics team starts sorting out the details, the investigation starts getting complicated and messy.

While he continues to conceal his issues from his co-workers, Ben confides in his wife (Molly Parker) that Sam has, indeed, returned. Their relationship is already on shaky ground in the wake of their young son’s abduction two years earlier, and she isn’t sure she’ll be able to cope with another descent into multiple-personality hell.

Shattered is an attention-grabber for a couple of reasons — first, it’s well written and employs a cop-show concept that hasn’t been seen a thousand times before (unlike Global’s other unexpectedly popular summer-launched drama, Rookie Blue), and second, its star delivers a compelling and consistently interesting performance.

Rennie has always been watchable, from his early work in the locally produced 1996 TV movie For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down through his memorable runs in such prime-time titles as DaVinci’s Inquest, Californication and 24. And in this starring role, he uses the full weight of his experience and age to create a character filled with contradictions and simmering rage.

The supporting cast, led by Parker, Clé Bennett (The Line) and Martin Cummins (Dark Angel), is solid, but the appeal of Shattered springs directly from Rennie’s stellar work. His efforts, and this series’ strong start, deserve to be rewarded by a longer-term lease on a prime-time slot.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/entertainment/TV/actor-makes-dysfunctional-detective-compelling-101543378.html

The film centers on the five-person crew of “Grave Encounters”, a ghost-hunting reality show, which is shooting an episode inside an abandoned insane asylum. After interviewing numerous witnesses who claim to have had paranormal experiences there, they lock themselves inside the massive building and begin their investigation. To their delight, strange things do begin happening – objects moving on their own, ghostly voices echoing through the halls – and they capture it all on camera. But they soon realize that the building is more than just haunted – it is alive – and doesn’t want them to leave. Doors that should lead outside only lead to more hallways, as if the building itself is changing. Time passes through what should be days, only to reveal itself as night. The crew find themselves trapped in an impossible nightmare, hiding from the ghosts of the crazed patients who haunt the building and pick them off one by one. As food and water run low and they desperately search for a way out, they discover the truth behind the asylum’s dark past…and end up capturing their final demise on camera.

Cold Spots Trailer

Ghag, who has conducted three HST seminars for the film industry, explained by phone that film-production companies—as well as suppliers of catering and lighting—that are currently paying seven-percent PST on rental equipment, props, costumes, and other goods will be able to recover the 12-percent HST after July 1. “That means that yes, they will be paying a higher rate of tax at 12 percent, but the full 12 percent will be fully recoverable by them on their GST returns, which means that effectively they’re not paying that tax,” he said.

Ghag noted that self-assessments will no longer be necessary. “The film-production industry would have before been registered for the provincial sales tax and would have been doing some self-assessing of provincial sales tax for costumes and equipment brought from other provinces [or the U.S.] into British Columbia.…And they would have to self-assess provincial sales tax on all that equipment. Well, they’re no longer going to have to do that whole compliance process, so that’s not only going to save them some tax but also some compliance costs,” he said.

Streamlining the filing process will provide additional savings. Ghag explained that now only one return, auditor, and administrator will be required instead of two of each.

Ghag added that companies do need to meet some accounting requirements and take internal steps in order to benefit from the HST.

http://www.straight.com/article-330408/vancouver/hst-benefit-film-industry

Daydream Nation Mike Goldbach, BC
World Premiere
In this striking and slyly funny debut by filmmaker Mike Goldbach, a young woman (Kat Dennings) is uprooted to a small town where her classmates seem permanently stoned, an industrial fire burns ceaselessly in the background and a killer preys on the unsuspecting populace. The film also stars Andie MacDowell, Josh Lucas, Reece Thompson and Rachel Blanchard.

Amazon Falls Katrin Bowen, BC
World Premiere
Characters reveal hidden depths as Katrin Bowen’s first feature tells the tale of a struggling actress named Jana. Delving into the high-stakes world of keeping up appearances for which Los Angeles is infamous, Amazon Falls crafts an intense look at dream-chasers living on the margins of Hollywood.

High Cost of Living Deborah Chow, QC
World Premiere
Deborah Chow’s dark drama centres on the burgeoning relationship between an unlikely pair. Nathalie (Isabelle Blais) is expecting her first child and Henry (Zach Braff) is on his way to his next drug deal. Their paths fatefully collide one night in an event that will irrevocably change their lives.

Jaloux Patrick Demers, QC
North American Premiere
In this psychological thriller that was improvised during its 16-day shoot, a couple trying to mend their relationship set off for a weekend in the country. When they encounter a friendly neighbour, they are too absorbed in their marital woes to see that he is not who he appears to be.

Oliver Sherman Ryan Redford, ON
World Premiere
Tensions arise when Sherman visits the home of Franklin, a fellow soldier who saved his life back in the war. Franklin has long since moved on – to a wife, two children and a reliable job, but the stability he has worked so hard to establish is soon threatened by Sherman’s presence. The film stars Donal Logue, Molly Parker and Garret Dillahunt.

You Are Here Daniel Cockburn, ON
North American Premiere
You Are Here is a smartly-crafted commentary on our modern day existence. Comprised of interconnected mini-narratives, the film’s characters find themselves trapped in bizarre social experiments of their own making. The film features Tracy Wright and Nadia Litz.

Please click the link below for more information on TIFF

http://tiff.net/thefestival

Tower Prep is an action thriller telling the story of a rebellious teen, Ian (Drew Van Acker), who wakes up one morning to find himself trapped at a mysterious prep school focused on tapping into the “unique potential” of its students. Ian forms a secret group with fellow students CJ (Elise Gatien), Gabe (Ryan Pinkston) and Suki (Dyana Liu) as they search for answers to where they are and how to get home.

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The use of licensed images of deceased celebrities as a marketing ploy to pitch products has helped to create a multi-million dollar dead celebrity merchandising industry, according to an Oct. 29, 2007 Forbes Magazine story listing the “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities of 2007.” But the question of who gets to collect the royalties from marketing dead celebrity images is far from clear-cut.

The bill’s sponsor, California State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles), told the Los Angeles Times for a July 23, 2007 story, “This bill is a recognition of the right to publicize and use an image as a kind of property right that extends beyond death and can be willed as a kind of personal property. The image of a celebrity is not something the public can use generally … no matter how popular the celebrity is.”

2007 Cal. Stat. ch 439 amends California Civil Code Section 3344.1 to retroactively bestow posthumous protection for rights of celebrities who died before 1985.

In 1984, California passed Civil Code Section 3344.1, dubbed the “Astaire Celebrity Image Protection Act,” which created a posthumous right of publicity for celebrities that extended for 70 years after the celebrity’s death. The law became effective on Jan. 1, 1985, according to a California Assembly Committee on the Judiciary analysis of the new bill signed into law in October 2007. The committee’s analysis is available on the California Senate Web site at http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0751-0800/sb_771_cfa_20070709_103425_asm_comm.html.

Although California Civil Code Section 3344.1 defined a “deceased personality” for purposes of the law as a natural person who had died within 70 years prior to Jan. 1, 1985, two federal district court decisions in May 2007 interpreted the California law to stand for the proposition that celebrities who died before the bill’s effective date on Jan. 1, 1985 were not granted a posthumous right of publicity.

Both federal district court cases concerned disputes over the likeness of actress Marilyn Monroe between the heirs of Monroe’s estate and the heirs of photographers who held copyrights to images of the actress. The photographers’ heirs independently licensed Marilyn Monroe’s image without consulting her estate, and the estate’s heirs contested the photographers’ heirs’ ability to do so.

In Shaw Family Archives Ltd., v. CMG Worldwide, Inc., 486 F. Supp. 2d 309 (S.D.N.Y. 2007), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled on cross-motions for summary judgment that Marilyn Monroe could not have bequeathed a post-mortem right to publicity to her heirs. The court initially determined that the relevant state laws from New York (no common law or statutory right of publicity for dead persons), California (see Cal. Code 3344.1), and Indiana (see 32 Ind. Code., Art. 35, Chap. 1, sectionsection 1-20) had not, at the time of Monroe’s death in 1962, bestowed a post-mortem right of publicity. Since Monroe could only have bequeathed property that she owned at her death to her heirs, and since she herself had not been granted a post-mortem right of publicity at the time of her death by state law, she could not pass such a right on to her heirs in her will, the court ruled. As a result, any right of publicity that Monroe enjoyed her lifetime was extinguished at her death.

On May 14, 2007, in Milton H. Greene Archives, Inc. v. CMG Worldwide, Inc., No. CV 05-2200 (MMM) (C.D. Cal.), the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a similar ruling. It held that under California Code Section 3344.1, beneficiaries of a person who died before 1985 had no right to exploit the deceased celebrity’s name, image, and likeness. Only persons who died after January 1, 1985, according to the court, could transfer their publicity rights to their own designated beneficiaries.

According to the California Assembly Committee on the Judiciary analysis, the purpose of the new bill was to abrogate the two federal district court decisions from May 2007 and clarify that a deceased celebrity’s publicity rights apply to individuals who died before Jan. 1, 1985.

Similar bills to protect the publicity rights of dead celebrities have been introduced in New York and New Jersey.

In 2007, a bill that would recognize a post-mortem right of publicity in perpetuity for any person deceased after January 1, 1938 was introduced as Senate Bill 6005 and Assembly Bill 8836 in the New York State Legislature. According to the summary of the bill on the New York State Legislature’s Web site, http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A08836, it would prohibit use for advertising purposes of the name, portrait, voice, signature, or picture of a deceased person without the written permission of the individual’s estate. The bill’s purpose is to grant a post-mortem right of publicity in New York so that “quick buck artists and unprincipled merchandisers who care nothing about the individuals concerned” cannot profit from use of a celebrity’s likeness. The state legislature Web site indicates that the bill was amended after a third reading on June 14, 2007 and was then referred to the judiciary committee on Jan. 9, 2008.

In November 2007, the “Celebrity Image Protection Act” was introduced in the New Jersey State Legislature as Bill No. A4476 to recognize a post-mortem right of publicity for a “deceased personality,” defined as any person dying within 70 years prior to Jan. 1, 2008. The bill is modeled after California’s Civil Code Section 3344.1 and provides a civil action for unauthorized use of a deceased celebrity’s name or image for commercial purposes. No action can be brought after the expiration of 70 years after the death of the celebrity, according to the terms of the bill.

According to the New Jersey State Legislature Web site, http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp, the bill was referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee following the bill’s introduction on Nov. 8, 2007.