Karen Walton profile

Karen Walton is the screenwriter behind the cult teen werewolf hit Ginger Snaps. She also has a whole lot of other writing credits.

Today, she divides her time between Montreal and Toronto, with the occasional jaunt to LA. She's wrapped up adapting Michael Turner's great novel The Pornographer's Poem, and is working on a new film with Jean-Marc Vallée of C.R.A.Z.Y. fame. 

I interviewed Karen for the Fall 2008 issue of Canadian Screenwriter. I generally find screenwriters fun to interview. Especially Canadian ones. They know how to tell a good story, and even the successful ones live a relatively marginalized existence -- so they tend to be down to earth and honest.

Within moments of my first approaching Karen, she was sending emails that sounded like they were meant for an old friend.

It was also refreshing to speak to someone who was unabashed in expressing her complete lack of interest in directing:

"I totally admired the directors, and totally understood the nature of the performance required from the actors. But what I really wanted to do was to able to continue working with lots of different kinds of directors on lots of different kinds of projects. If you become an auteur, if you become the director, that changes. Because you only ever get to be on your own set. You only get to have a converastion with who you invite to the party. And I fell in love with the idea that I didn't know yet what was possible. And what I really wanted to do was hang out and work with directors, not be one.”

You can read my story here.  Then drop by ink canada, the Facebook group she started to bring Canadian screenwriters together. 

Flashpoint

The debut episode of Canadian-produced SWAT team dram Flashpoint was the top-rated show on American TV last Friday night.

You can read part of my feature article on the show's writers here.

Prairie Giant

The Tommy Douglas mini-series Prairie Giant, which the CBC pulled from circulation (and which I wrote about here) is going to be broadcast by Vision TV, CBC News reports.

What I found interesting in the story is this sentence:

Starring stage actor Michael Therriault as the title character, Prairie Giant won awards and received praise from a number of critics. However, historians panned it for its depiction of former Saskatchewan premier Jimmy Gardiner, a Liberal. (Emphasis added.)

Historians? As I understand it, there was only one historian who panned it -- and he or she was hired by the CBC and published his or her criticisms in an anonymous report.

The Greatest Canadian update

CBC has sold Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, meaning it will get international distribution. (H/T to Tod Maffin's Inside the CBC blog for pointing to the story.)

Earlier, CBC had distanced itself from the mini-series because of what it said were factual errors. Writer Bruce Smith, meanwhile, said it was the most meticulously researched work he'd ever done.

I interviewed Bruce last year for a story in Canadian Screenwriter. Here's an excerpt, with a link to the full story below.

“I have no beef with the Gardiner family. I’m sorry they’re upset, but this stuff should be debated, and if they want to defend Jimmy Gardiner they should be able to defend him in public. The point is this stuff should be defended in public,” Smith says. “If some academic wants to criticize it he should have the simple decency to do so under his own name. That’s all. It’s very simple. My name is on it. The name of everyone who worked on the film is on it. We’re not trying to hide anything–we’re trying to put it on television and let people argue about the history of Canada.”

Full story here.

World's first!

My thanks to Andy Riga for sending me the ridiculous press release below.

1) How many screenwriters send out a release that their script is "almost complete?" Now there's a news peg for you.

2) The film is "the world's first Russian-Canadian co-production." Excuse me, "the world's first?" How about "The first Russian-Canadian co-production." Can there be any Russian-Canadian co-productions in other countries? If not, we don't need the word "world" (unless we want to sound much more impressive than we really are).

3) "...an intriguing story." Intriguing! My favourite word! Perhaps it will be "fascinating" too.

4) I have only gotten through the first paragraph and I am tired already.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TROJAN. Ruse de Sioux KGB
Russian screenwriter Aleksandr Borodyanskiy announces his latest script, and the beginning of the world’s first Russian-Canadian co-production

Toronto – May 16, 2007 Professor Aleksandr Borodyanskiy, a well-known Russian screenwriter, film director and actor, has announced he is working on his latest feature film script. When complete, the screenplay will tell an intriguing story about the arrest of a suspected Kremlin spy in Canada. The script has already been registered with the copyright societies of Russia and Canada under the name Canadian Spy Kremlin. The working title for the film is Trojan, and Borodyanskiy has announced that his script is almost complete. When the finished screenplay is ready to enter production, it will mark the beginning of the world’s first co-production between Russia and Canada. Borodyanskiy is excited to announce his work on this script, as he has been fascinated with espionage themes since his early years. “For me, a spy is a person whose life is interesting and extraordinary,” said Borodyanskiy. Despite the theme’s serious nature, Borodyanskiy’s screenplay will be a lyric drama and tragic comedy. The film will be filled with both humor and irony, with a plot loosely based on the story of Paul William Hampel. “The prototype of my film’s hero is a man named Paul Hampel, who was arrested in Canada last November, and deported to Russia in December,” said Borodyanskiy the to Russian information agency Interfax. Hampel was a fictitious name used by a man who was arrested at a Montreal airport in November 2006, after the Canadian government accused him of being a Russian spy. Hampel later admitted through his lawyer that he was indeed a Russian citizen, with no legal status in Canada, but he did not admit to being involved in espionage. During Hampel’s trial, a Federal Court judge agreed to withhold the man’s real name over concerns for the safety of his family. In exchange, Hampel did not contest deportation to Russia. The man living as Hampel had managed to obtain a valid Canadian passport, and had made frequent trips to Europe during his time in Canada. Interfax picked up on a possible connection between the story of Paul William Hampel and that of another famous Russian dissident named Aleksandr Litvinenko. When asked whether the film will touch on the famous story of the poisoning of ex-KGB agent Litvinenko, Borodyanskiy withheld details, and replied “as far as Litvinenko is concerned I can only say that my hero has also been visiting Europe on numerous occasions as well.”

Aleksandr Borodyanskiy Upon resignation from KGB, the Soviet Union Intelligence Service, Aleksandr Litvinenko made public accusations against his leaders saying they gave an order to kill Russian billionaire Boris Berezovskiy. After being arrested by Russian authorities, Litvinenko was released and fled to Europe. In November 2006, Litvinenko died of lethal radiation poisoning under highly suspicious circumstances. Two years after his death, Russian authorities began looking into Litvinenko’s accusations of the alleged KGB misdeeds. This led to public accusations that the Russian government was behind Litvinenko’s poisoning, and resulted in worldwide media coverage. A few years ago, Aleksandr Borodyanskiy wrote the script for a popular Russian film called Tycoon, which was released in 2002. Tycoon’s main character closely resembled billionaire Boris Berezovskiy. Borodyanskiy has written several espionage-themed scripts in his career, and is considered to be a master of spy films in Russia. His previous work includes writing a Russian-Chilean film called KGB Agents Also Fall in Love. Films based on his scripts have won numerous awards at film festivals around the world. Aleksandr Borodyanskiy is a well known screen writer in Russia. He has penned the scripts of numerous feature-length films, many of which have received recognition both in and outside of Russia. Borodyanskiy’s award-winning scripts include Afonya We Are From Jazz, Ground Zero, and American Daughter, among others. In total, Aleksandr Borodyanskiy has written over 50 scripts in various genres including drama, comedy, adventure, romance, and history. -30- Available for interviews: Aleksandr Borodyanskiy