Homolka film to be released Jan. 20
Canadian Press, The Calgary Sun and various newspapers across Canada, By JOHN MCKAY, January 10, 2006
TORONTO (CP) - The controversial Hollywood movie about schoolgirl killers Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo will be released in Canadian theatres Jan. 20, but will not be screened in the southern Ontario city where the infamous sex crimes took place, the film's distributor said Tuesday.
Sylvain Gagne, vice-president of Montreal-based Christal Films, said theatre chains opted not to screen the film in St. Catharines, Ont., and the surrounding area. "They said 'It's a sensitive area. We feel that we don't want to play the film there.' So we said 'Absolutely'," he said.
While the film will be advertised on television, there will be no theatrical trailers and no premiere.
"The film will be there. If the people want to see it, it will allow them to make up their minds what happened," said Gagne.
Christal has announced that Karla will open in about 100 theatres across the country - 50 or so in English Canada and 50 in Quebec (most of those prints will be dubbed into French).
That said, a Cineplex Entertainment spokesperson said Tuesday the chain would only show the film in major urban markets, including three or four screens in the Toronto area, one in Ottawa and two screens in Montreal - one English and French.
Pat Marshall, vice-president of communications and marketing at Cineplex Entertainment, said that means about 15 screens in total. Cineplex encompasses about two-thirds of the country's theatres, she said.
She stressed that the chain is not playing censor.
"Our role is to provide access for the film to the community and to let them decide if they want to see it or not," said Marshall.
Tim Danson, the lawyer who represents the families of slain teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, reiterated Tuesday that his clients will not attempt to block the film's release.
"The families are very disappointed that the movie is going to be distributed across Canada," Danson said from Niagara Falls, Ont. "But they decided to take a principled position. . .they weren't going to play the censor board."
Danson saw the film last fall and later consulted with producer Michael Sellers of Los Angeles-based Quantum Entertainment. It was agreed that several scenes, including one which Danson thought amounted to child pornography, would be edited or trimmed.
Still, Danson says the film still has some errors and "very serious omissions" despite being based on a transcript of the legal proceedings.
"And I believe that the movie paints too sympathetic a portrait of Homolka when in my view, the facts are there should be no sympathy for her, that she's a very dangerous and evil person," he said.
Karla will get its film rating on Wednesday. Gagne is anticipating an 18A in English Canada.
The movie has been the subject of intense debate.
It was pulled from the Montreal World Film Festival last year after sponsors, including Air Canada, complained. Passions were rekindled when Homolka was released from her Montreal-area prison last July and became the subject of a media frenzy. And Premier Dalton McGuinty urged Ontarians to boycott it.
Karla stars Laura Prepon of That '70s Show in the title role with Misha Collins as Bernardo. They and the filmmakers are set to give media interviews in Toronto next week.
In a statement, Sellers said the film opens with Homolka about to undergo her extended psychiatric evaluation, eight years into her 12-year prison term, and that the sordid events are then seen in flashbacks.
"Everything from the early scenes with Paul through the crimes and eventually a little bit of the trial - from her point of view," he adds. "But it's a point of view that is repeatedly challenged."
The movie's official website ( www.karlathemovie.net ) includes a series of links to enhance public awareness about the dangers of predators who lurk "even in the quietest, most unlikely places."
They include Oprah's Child Predator Watch List and the Canadian Children's Rights Council.
The site also offers a message from Sellers saying he respects those in Canada who have questioned his motives making Karla.
He admits to considerable soul-searching but cites such respected cinema predecessors as In Cold Blood and Monster which he says have a legitimate place in the realm of free artistic expression.
