Joel Bender's KARLA: Producer plans to hold a private screening in Toronto during the Toronto Intern
In his arts/entertainment column in the Toronto Star today (Saturday August 13), Martin Knelman reports that the producer of Joel Bender's Karla (formerly titled "Deadly"), Michael Sellers, is planning to hold a private screening for the movie in Toronto during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Knelman also reports that Jeff Sackman, president and CEO of Toronto-based distributor THINKFilm (Think Film Company Inc.), "sent an email to fellow distributors urging them to pass on Karla. 'I hope that we remain united in our membership (and community) that no one would pick this up,' Sackman argued. He describes Sellers as 'a third-rate so-called producer at best.'" Sackman admits that he hasn't seen Karla. He himself was one of the executive producers of Mary Harron's American Psycho, which was based on Bret Easton Ellis' eponymous novel - reputedly Paul Bernardo's "bible". (Apropos, here's a quote (dated May 23, 1998) from Canadians Concerned About Violence in Entertainment (C-CAVE) chair Rose A. Dyson regarding the decision by Sackman - then president of Lions Gate Films Inc. - et al. to produce Harron's American Psycho: "Considering that Clifford Olsen tortured and murdered eleven children in this company's home province, it is callous, cold-hearted and grossly irresponsible for Lions Gate to bring the 'bible' of another serial killer, Paul Bernardo, to the big screen.") Also, according to Knelman, "ThinkFilm spent months trying to acquire DVD rights to Vlad, a low-budget horror film directed by Sellers, after it won prizes at two film festivals."
Note that Karla won't be playing at TIFF. Two versions of the movie apparently were submitted to TIFF but, for reasons not made public, it didn't select either for its line-up. Last year, however, its line-up included such controversial works as Lukas Moodysson's fictional movie A Hole in My Heart (Ett hål i mitt hjärta) and Zev Asher's documentary Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat (which contained real cat-gutting footage from 2004 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winner Istvan Kantor's 8-piece video album Catastronics).
Karla apparently stars Laura Prepon as Karla Homolka, Misha Collins as Paul Bernardo, Cherilyn Hayres as Tammy Homolka, Sarah Foret as Kaitlin Ross (formerly Kaitlyn Frost) = Kristen French, and Kristen Swieconek as Tina McCarthy (formerly Leah Macarthy) = Leslie Mahaffy. (ScreenAnarchy's source for the new names of the Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy characters is the blog of Global News reporter Seán O'Shea - specifically, the June 20th entry "Deadly the Movie: Exclusive First Look" and June 23rd entry "Deadly The Movie: Part Two".)
Homolka and Bernardo have already been the subjects of several books, including Stephen Williams' Invisible Darkness: The Horrifying Case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka and Karla: A Pact with the Devil.
Trailer (downloadable 5.6 MB MOV file)
Official website
