Rhombus Media partners part ways

Macdonald takes position at Jewison's CFC

By BRENDAN KELLY

MONTREAL -- After nearly three decades together, the four partners who own Canuck film and TV production company Rhombus Media are splitting up -- sort of.

Sheena Macdonald, the Toronto-based company's head of international distribution, is indeed leaving to take the position of director of special projects at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

The other three partners -- Niv Fichman, Barbara Willis Sweete and Larry Weinstein -- will each own individually a separate production company under the Rhombus umbrella.

The Rhombus partners had originally planned to disband altogether, but they realized it made more sense to retain some ties. The three will continue to own the 200-title Rhombus library.

Fichman's company will concentrate on bigger-budget features while the other two will specialize in less-pricey features and performing-arts documentaries.

"We just realized that totally getting away from each other didn't make sense," said Fichman, who is in Sao Paulo in pre-production on the $28 million pic "Blindness," which will be directed by Fernando Meirelles from the dark Jose Saramago novel. "But we each wanted to be in control of our destiny."

Willis Sweete added: "We realized we're naturally tied to each other. It's funny to contemplate divorce and then stay together."

Later this summer, Fichman will co-produce "Passchendaele," an ambitious WWI-set pic based on a script by Paul Gross ("Men With Brooms"), who will also direct and star. Fichman's most recent production, the Francois Girard pic "Silk," will be launched in cinemas in the fall.

Previous Rhombus productions include the pics "Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould," "The Red Violin," "Childstar" and "The Saddest Music in the World" and the TV series "Slings & Arrows" and "Yo-Yo Ma -- Inspired by Bach."