- News for July 1999 -
SENTINEL SPECIAL PRESENTATION ON UPN - Jul 20
Following on from the current reruns of fourth season episodes, UPN have scheduled The Sentinel as its Thursday Night Movie on Thursday August 12 at 8pm (7c) and will be screening Sentinel, Too - Part One and Part Two back to back.
ROCKING THE BOAT - FILM AND TV PRODUCTION IN CANADA - Jul 13
From The Hollywood Reporter
By Etan Vlessing and David Finnigan
Rocking the Boat / U.S. unions cry foul, but Canada's busy production sector is just lifting a page from the U.S. playbook.
Canadians have a Clinton-like reply to American actors, crew members and union leaders confounded by Hollywood's ongoing job losses to their neighbors to the North: It's the dollar, stupid.
Offering an exchange rate highly favorable to the U.S. greenback, Canadians have done what the world's entertainment superpower assumed no other country could, or would, do -- they began to think like Americans. Along the way, they have embraced that most Yankee tradition -- making a buck.
Like Richard Dreyfuss becoming the ultimate Canadian macher in 1974's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Canadians have hustled seriously for U.S. film and TV dollars by offering buckets of federal and provincial tax breaks, coupled with the favorable exchange rate.
Canada routinely secures about 80% of productions shot outside the United States, reaping some $2.8 billion last year, according to a SAG-DGA report issued earlier this month.
On the U.S. side of the border, resentment of Canadians' newfound enterprise seems to be growing, with talk of reprisal in the form of new tax incentives by the state of California to woo back runaway production.
But reversing Canada's gravitational pull through a revised tax policy would be futile, some film industry pundits argue.
"If they (California) think that implementing an equivalent tax credit will solve the problem, they are sadly mistaken," says Paul Audley, a Toronto-based industry consultant who frequently works with the federal government to create film and cultural policy.
Canada's 2-year-old federal foreign services tax credit program gives foreign producers lucrative tax subsidies to offset labor costs on TV and film projects shot there.
The upcoming Universal release Snow Falling on Cedars, for example, is set in the American Northwest, but was shot in British Columbia. The telefilm Jesse 'The Body' Ventura portrays the TV wrestler turned Minnesota governor but was filmed just across the border in Ontario. And Fox's summer thriller Lake Placid is set at a lake in Maine but was shot in the woodsy environs of British Columbia.
Audley insists the percentage of U.S. production activity north of the border -- currently 2% -- rises and falls depending on the state of the Canadian dollar, now just north of the Russian ruble in value when compared with the strong American dollar.
The tax credit schemes for foreign and domestic producers were, in fact, first introduced in 1996 to preserve high-paying film and TV production jobs created by U.S. producers coming north to take advantage of the low Canadian dollar.
The favorable exchange rate may anger the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, but Hollywood has made Canada its overseas backlot of choice. The nation will likely pose a competitive threat to Southern California for years to come, despite the efforts of U.S. lawmakers.
"It's hardly remarkable that if U.S. producers can get better value by producing in Canada, a significant number will do just that," Audley says. "All (tax breaks) do is make the Americans angry. We would still be swamped with U.S. production, since the cost of producing here is so much lower."
SAG and DGA officials fear other countries will copy Canadian incentives to eat away more at U.S. productions. Consider that Australian soundstages have housed The Matrix and Mission: Impossible 2, that New Zealand forests are home to TV's Xena: Warrior Princess, that the Czech Republic beat out France to play France in CBS TV's Joan of Arc May miniseries.
To casual observers, Canada grabbing 2% of Hollywood-generated productions may not seem like a hemorrhage. Yet that loss is felt by entertainment trade unions -- SAG, DGA, AFTRA, the Teamsters -- whose American members are losing work to Canadians, including lesser-qualified Canadians whose key advantage is the correct citizenship.
The unions, which have been clamoring for help against "runaway productions," are angry. A coalition of industry guilds staged a rally, attracting 1,000 Hollywood workers last week at California's Capitol to support legislation offering producers tax rebates to shoot in the state. In late June, the DGA and SAG released a joint report detailing the $10.3 billion drain on the U.S. economy last year from foreign-location productions, which the report concludes siphon American jobs and, thus, wages, taxes and spending.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, now her country's consul general in Los Angeles, disagrees with the report's conclusions. "The world film industry is not an American film industry," she says. "We don't see it as something that belongs to California ... that somehow Canada is seen not to be entitled to a portion of the movie industry."
Alex Gill, a spokesman for the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, representing 14,000 Canadian actors, says that unless California is prepared to offer a "40% tax incentive," Hollywood could not compete with a low Canadian dollar that, combined with lucrative tax breaks, returned to U.S. producers just under CAN$0.50 (35 cents) for every CAN$1 (68 cents) spent in Canada.
If anything, puzzled Canadians wonder why Los Angeles took so long to recognize the long-term drain of work northward to Canada, and elsewhere around the world.
Peter Mitchell, British Columbia's film commissioner, says Hollywood producers simply are following the lead of U.S. companies like Nike and General Motors in going offshore to where it's friendly and cheap to produce their wares.
"We are right now in a beneficial situation, and this will likely change as the (Canadian dollar) exchange rate rises and falls," he says.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader remembers a time when production crews shot movies and TV shows abroad -- when the stories were set on foreign shores. "They used to go overseas primarily for geography," Nader says. "Now they go overseas for cheap labor because they can create the geography anywhere."
While production executives repeatedly say budget-cutting is the main factor that sends projects abroad, the cost reductions are not being passed on to the consumers at the boxoffice, Nader argues.
For the past three years, television producer Danny Bilson has shot TV dramas in Vancouver, which can cheaply double for Denver or Seattle, just like Toronto can mimic Manhattan. The actioner The Sentinel was written as a Seattle-based drama, Bilson explains, but after he was handed the show's budget, "our only choice was to make it in Vancouver. It was either make it there or don't make it."
A married father of two, Bilson spent 60% to 70% of the past three years in Vancouver shooting UPN's Sentinel and the Paramount-syndicated Viper away from his Los Angeles home, family and friends. "It was a tough commute. It was really hard," he says now.
But while Bilson was wrapped up in his production details, he only heard about L.A. workers losing work to Canadian crews. "I know what it's like to shoot there," he says. "I don't know what it's like to be down here and see a lot of my friends out of work."
Cinematographer Steven Fierberg (Atomic Train) believes current work slowdowns are being caused not just by Canadian inroads to U.S. productions but by the continuing decline in the annual number of films each studio is releasing. A trickle-down effect means people who normally work on major studio features are working on middle-budget projects, including TV.
"The middle people, the crews, are having a hard time," Fierberg says. "I get a lot of phone calls from crew people now, because nobody's working, everybody's freaking out."
Actors also are feeling the hit from Canada, especially with bread-and-butter movie-of-the-week jobs. Of the 285 U.S. film and TV productions shot abroad last year, 139 were telefilms, most of them made in Canada.
"It used to be that I would go to Canada back in the late '80s for 21 Jump Street, " says actor Richard McGonagle. "But now the roles that we do up there, they hire Canadians."
Yet McGonagle adds that it is hard to determine how much work he has lost to runaway productions that didn't hire him to run away too. Script demands, the decline in the numbers of productions and Hollywood ageism contribute to work loss as well, he notes.
"This is such a nebulous business, you never know from one month to the next whether you're going to be working," says McGonagle, now shooting Rules of Engagement at Paramount Pictures' Hollywood lot.
Americans like Bilson and Fierberg have become a kind of Hollywood migrant worker, leaving their homeland and kin for jobs in more prosperous places. Such newfound migrant status does not surprise Nader, who says any highly mobile industry "not rooted in some factory" also is not rooted in a city or a country. "They go abroad, the same game that the auto industry and other industries play."
The creative process can be frustrated by the exodus to Canada, where immigration laws require Canadian hires and prohibit directors from bringing up U.S. assistant directors or unit production managers whose work they know.
"Our directors, if given the choice, would take their assistant directors from the U.S.," DGA president Jack Shea says.
Hollywood has an unlikely ally in Canadian cultural nationalists. Sara Morton, director of tax credits for the Ontario Film Development Corp., says the Ontario government from time to time weighs the effectiveness of its tax credits aimed at wooing foreign producers across the border.
"We feel (tax credits) play an important role in maintaining production levels here," she says, adding that she doubts the Ontario government is considering changing its foreign tax credit program.
Allan King, president of the Directors Guild of Canada, says that Canada makes for a pint-sized scapegoat. King disputes the DGA-SAG report, arguing that runaway production only contributed $573 million to the Canadian economy.
"We represent about 2% of U.S. production, which is trivial," he says, pointing out that Hollywood TV and film product is increasingly financed in part from abroad, and sold the world over, making it natural that some Hollywood productions would be shot outside the United States.
Campbell and other Canadians stress that their country at best captures 2% of previously California-based productions, but U.S.-made, American-themed movies and TV dominate Canadian TV networks and theaters.
"Canada's a big market to the American film industry," Campbell says. "I don't think Americans for a second would put up with the kind of foreign domination of their media that Canadians have."
(Thanks Kathy)
HOLLYWOOD EXECS: CANADA ENTITLED TO "RUNAWAY PRODUCTIONS" - Jul 13
Article from CANOE (Canadian Online Explorer)
By Ian Bailey - Canadian Pres
VANCOUVER --Two Hollywood executives stood up for Canada on Monday against allegations by U.S. actors and directors that Canada is unfairly playing host to "runaway productions" fleeing the United States.
Representatives of Sony-Columbia Tristar and Walt Disney Pictures made the point as British Columbia announced it would put $20 million towards a $70-million plan to expand the Vancouver Film Studios.
The NDP government is loaning $20 million so the studios can add six sound stages to a four-stage operation that's hosted such TV series as The Sentinel and DaVinci's Inquest, plus films like Stakeout Two and the upcoming Dudley Do Right, starring Brendan Fraser.
The U.S. studio officials acknowledged Canada is fighting hard for U.S. productions, which account for two-thirds of the $1 billion in production expenditures British Columbia is expecting this year.
"It is an issue of competition," Ed Lammi, an executive vice-president with Columbia TriStar Television, said during a lavish ceremony to announce the studios' expansion.
"What has happened over the years is that Canada and the B.C. government have been very wise with the tax credits.
"What the United States probably needs to do is think about that as well."
The fuss is being fuelled by a recent study suggesting the U.S. entertainment industry lost $2.8 billion in production expenditures on TV shows and movies shot outside the United States.
Canada has been the focus of concern from the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of America because 81 per cent of that lost production ended up in Canada -- notably British Columbia, which ranks third behind Los Angeles and New York City as a North American production centre.
The productions were shifted north for various reasons that include the relatively low Canadian dollar and a general supply of experienced, trained crews.
Both U.S. guilds have been talking about lobbying to enact tax breaks to keep production in the United States.
The Directors Guild of Canada has waded into the fray, suggesting the U.S. study hinges on faulty data.
"What we all need is a reality check," Allan King, director of the Canadian guild, said in a statement.
"When you actually look at the audited numbers, it turns out that the U.S. study has exaggerated the amount of U.S. production dollars coming to Canada by a factor of three to four."
Canada is a fixture in Hollywood production schemes, said a Walt Disney representative attending Monday's announcement.
British Columbia looms large in that approach, said Disney's finance vice-president, noting that 15 of 21 Disney films shot in Canada since 1987 have been shot in British Columbia.
The latest is the $100-million US science fiction movie Mission to Mars, which stars Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise, and is to begin production within weeks under director Brian De Palma.
"We don't consider film in Canada a fad, but rather a part of the decision process in choosing a shooting location," said Paul Steinke.
"This is an option that Disney has been using for years and will continue to do so in the future."
The Disney representative said Mission is being shot in B.C. for various reasons that include the fact that De Palma had a good time shooting his last movie, Snake Eyes, in Montreal instead of a U.S. location.
Steinke said Los Angeles and Hollywood will always be the heart and soul of the U.S. entertainment industry.
But he noted that Canada's prospects look good.
"I think production will always remain in Canada to a certain level and possibly continue to grow as it has every single year," he said.
B.C. Premier Glen Clark, who has been steadfast about backing B.C. unions, ironically said the U.S. unions should cool down.
Clark said the directors' and actors' guilds should focus on "right to work" states like Texas, which are luring production with tax incentives, instead of British Columbia.
The NDP premier has been sharply criticized for using provincial funds to try to grow private-sector industries, but said the $20 million studio loan made sense.
"This really, truly gives us the infrastructure to continue to grow the business," he said. Once the project is completed by October 2000, there will be three major studio complexes in the Vancouver region.
(Thanks Noon)
RICHARD BURGI NEWS FROM THE RICHARD BURGI FAN CLUB - Jul 9
Richard Burgi appeared in the pilot of a new show on Fox called Action which will air Thursdays at 9:30, whenever Fox's new season starts. He played an action film star named Cole Riccardi and could possibly become a recurring character.
For more news on Richard Burgi, visit The RBFC site at: http://www.richardburgi.com
(Thanks Carla and the RBFC)
SENTINEL MENTION IN STARLOG - Jul 8
Starlog #265, Aug 99
This mention of The Sentinel can be found on the top right corner of page 8, The Loglines page:
STUPID NETWORK DECISION OF THE MONTH
UPN: was cancelling The Sentinel again really a good idea? You're gonna get mail.
(Thanks Jamie)
SENTINEL CELEBRITY COUPLE - Jul 1
From the July 5, 1999 Double Issue of People magazine (the Wedding issue):
Ring-a-ding-ding! With These Tokens of Affection, Stars are Pledging Their Love but not Their Lives.
In this article about stars exchanging friendship rings with their girl or boyfriends (p.137), The Sentinel's Garett Maggart and Anna Galvin were one of the celebrity couples quoted.
...Sentinel star Garett Maggart gave actress girlfriend Anna Galvin a 1.25-carat sapphire that he says matches 'the color of her eyes.'
(Thanks Sue)
GERMAN TV HIGHLIGHT'S ARTICLE ON THE SENTINEL - Jul 1
Thanks to Steffi for the translation of the following article which appeared in Germany's TV Highlights magazine - Issue 141 15 July 99
The Sentinel - in the eye of the Hunter
Sharp Senses, Solid Fists
In old tribal cultures, every village had a Sentinel. The Sentinel was chosen upon a genetic advantage: a sensory awareness which is more developed than of other people. I have hundreds of documented cases of one or two hyperactive senses but none with all five. You could be the one I am looking for..."
With those words spoken by the young scientist Blair Sandburg each episode of the spectacular action-fantasy series The Sentinel - in the eye of the hunter starts, and which is on the air again prime-time PRO7 since June 7.
Caption (left): With the weapon in hand against crime: The Sentinel (Richard Burgi)
Hadn't two theater enthused students met over 20 years ago at a performance of the California State University, this different police-story of the sensitive detective Jim Ellison would never have happened. Danny Bilson, born in Los Angeles, and Paul DeMeo, coming from Buffalo, quickly figured out their same love for adventure stories and old action movies. They sat together and began writing theater pieces. As other famous writer clubs (e.g., Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond) they spent more time together than with their current girlfriends.
In the eighties the both had their breakthrough with Science Fiction B- Movies such as Future Cops (1985), Destroyers, Zone Troopers (both 1986) and the comedy Scout Academy (1988). For TV Bilson / DeMeo wrote 1990 the interesting but only short-lived fantasies show The Flash. Today Paul still goes into raptures about remembering: "Gosh, what did I love this show. We had a lot of new ideas and were going to write the scripts for the second season, when the TV station told us it had been canceled."
The following works Rocketeer (1991) and The Human Target (1992) didn't succeed either. Then the two producers catapulted themselves with two international successful action shows to the top of the US TV charts. Viper (1994) and finally The Sentinel (1996).
CBS wasn't interested in a story about a cop with heightened senses. After Warner didn't want The Sentinel, even though one of the leading producers Ron Taylor voted for it, the script ended up in a desk drawer. When Taylor moved to another company the time for the Cop Ellison had come. UPN wanted a test script but the writing friends Bilson and DeMeo, who were working on two movie-scripts at that time, demanded a warranty for a pilot movie, which they got. The outcome: 65 episodes of The Sentinel and a compassionate fan-community, which goes through hell and high waters for their series.
Caption (right): Sometimes the unequal friends must go to the extreme
Detective James Ellison lives in the fictional city of Cascade and is a successful police officer. After a helicopter accident he was the only survivor of, his five senses became heightened. Since his 18-month stay with a tribe in the jungles of Peru, he has been capable of seeing finger prints with his eyes, smelling scents over great distances, eavesdrop on arguments, feel certain motions in the air and detect microscopic surface breaches by touch. Thus The Sentinel is one sole annoyance for criminals.
But his superior, Captain Simon Banks, is not always enthusiastic since James has problems to deal with his new capabilities. Help comes in form of the anthropologist Blair Sandburg whose dissertation is about the phenomenon of Sentinels. He is more than happy to have found in Ellison the first modern of his kind. A friendship develops between the two private completely different men, which cannot be shaken. Nonetheless, they fight word battles in a funny and sometimes fierce manner in which James calls his ponytail wearing partner ironically 'Chief'.
Besides the especially in the third and the fourth season spectacular chasing and action scenes, the only real replacement for MacGyver has gained a fanatic fan- community precisely because the interpersonal involvement adds spice to the show. When in spring 1998 it became known the series would be canceled the protest streamed. The fans bought entire ad pages in TV and movie magazines to emphasize their protest. On the Internet a Sentinel Webring had been founded to promote a continuation of the adventures of detective Jim Ellison. There are still 90,000 (!) entries for the search string The Sentinel today.
The wave of protest doesn't fail its effect. UPN decided to order a fourth season. Main actor Richard Burgi: "Although the fans had a great deal in this, I hope that a further reason for coming back was the capability of the relevant people working at the TV station to learn. They made an error by canceling a successful and high quality product and had the bravery to correct it."
Caption (left): For the super hearing, safes with number locks are not a problem
For the authors Bilson and DeMeo it had been a wonderful experience in learning not to be completely helpless in facing a sudden cancellation. Due to the bad memories regarding The Flash both of them are immensely grateful for the support: "The enormous fan- echo did put a tremendous pressure on all of us. This made finally the difference."
Admittedly the fourth season only consists of 8 episodes, but they are rich. Each of the particular lavishly arranged stories costs 1.85 Million Dollars: a record for TV shows! All went through much trouble improving their work. This was what we owed the fans (Bilson).
Whether there will be a fifth season isn't decided yet. The last episode The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg is not a cliffhanger but ties-up many loose ends for a harmonic conclusion. Yet everyone, authors and actors, are open for continuation. Should the financial backer decide otherwise they already know what they'll catch!
James "Jim" Ellison
had survived as the only soldier of a covert ops troop a helicopter crash in the jungles of Peru. While his involuntary 18-months stay in the wilderness, his senses became heightened. He can see, smell, feel, taste and hear better than others. After his rescue from the primeval forest he returns to the city of Cascade. As a detective his extraordinary senses stand in good stead. As support and help his superior put the young Blair Sandburg at his site.Richard Burgi
was born July 30, 1958 in Montclair, N.J. After traveling through Europe and the rest of the United States the son of theater loving parents decides to become an actor. In Manhattan Burgi earned his first money with commercials and small roles before he became known as Chad Rollo in the soap opera Another World. After roles in shows such as As The World Turns and Days of Our Lives, he played his first bigger part in the TV movie Chameleons in 1989 at the side of Stewart Granger. To force his career the nature lover and enthusiastic surfer moves to Los Angeles and soon has success. In the Hit series Viper Richard plays 1994 the diabolic Lane Cassidy and in One West Waikiki he can adore his partner Cherryl Ladd as a detective Mack Wolfe. The producers of Viper were shortly after looking for a main character for their newest project named The Sentinel.Besides working for TV Richard, who engages himself heartily for ecological themes, plays the drums and likes traveling, still finds time to do movies. Thus we will see the married father of a 2-year old son soon* in the sci-fi movie I Married a Monster. What does only his wife think about this title?
*note: the movie hasn't been aired yet in Germany
Blair Sandburg
is a young anthropology student who is working on his dissertation on Sentinels. He will proof Sir Richard Burton's thesis that people with a certain genetic advantage can improve their senses by spending a longer time in the wilderness and solitude. Up to now this individual lived only in pre civilized cultures but Sandburg considers Jim for the modern version of this kind. Blair is for the Sentinel some sort of 'Guide' helping him to understand and control his senses.Garett Maggart
comes from an actor family and was born in May 24, 1969. He gave his debut in the series Brothers in which his father played a part. After he had a tiny part in Garp and how he saw the world as a child (1982 with Robin Williams), the boy decides to stay in this business. In the TV series Frasier Garett gives a memorable performance as the crazy technician Bruce before he becomes recognized in April 994 in the soap opera Days of Our Lives and shortly after as the host of the music show House of Blues. The sports enthusiast and musician in leisure time lives in Los Angeles.
Simon Banks
has been captain for four years and knows as the only member of his department about Ellison's special skills. Over time he had learned to esteem the hot temper of his best detective and trust The Sentinel's instinct. To diminish Ellison's eagerness a little and to give him the opportunity to even improve his skills he agrees to Sandburg being an official observer and thus ride-along for Jim. Banks had been recently divorced and has a fourteen year-old son.Bruce A. Young
is a well-known TV, movie and theater performer. Bruce who studied theater science is guest star in uncountable popular series such as XFiles, Highlander. In movies the actor could also be seen at the side of Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), Paul Newman (The Color of Money), John Travolta (Phenomenon), Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon II) and Madeleine Stowe (Blink). On stage Young played last Shakespeare's Othello. He lives in Los Angeles.
(Thanks Steffi)