Alliance take over gets ugly

From the Globe and Mail:

Unitholders of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.'s movie distribution business are demanding payment from the parent company unless they are given a say in the $2.3-billion takeover of Alliance by CanWest Global Communications Corp.

The request for financial damages, “in an amount to be determined” by a judge, is contained in court documents filed Thursday by a special committee representing investors in the Movie Distribution Income Fund.

Those unitholders represent the 49 per cent of Alliance's film distribution subsidiary that is publicly traded as an income trust.

Alliance Atlantis sale nears approval

Alliance Atlantis moves one step further to be owned by CanWest. It should be noted that Alliance Atlantis owns the distribution rights of the CSI franchise in Canada, so it looks like more CSI for us on TV, instead of good Canadian written drama which we need so badly. In Canada, we don't have a studio system, we have television broadcasters.

What does this deal mean for Canadian filmmakers? Well, since AA no longer funds Canadian films after the complete failure of Foolproof (2003), the sale can't make anything worse for us. But, since our track record of producing viable critical and commercial films is so spotty, I don't suspect CanWest will be eager to fund more independent cinema. AA's final Canadian film Saint Ralph(2004), unfortunately, died a slow death at the box office.