MAPLE FLAVOUR FILMS sells remake rights to FOCUS FEATURES.

TORONTO, Canada – August 5, 2005 – MAPLE FLAVOUR FILMS, the Toronto-based production company, is proud to announce that Focus Features (Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Broken Flowers), the specialty film division of Universal Pictures, has optioned remake rights to their feature-length screenplay Sidekick written by Michael Sparaga.

“I grew up on Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola,” admits Sparaga. “But I also grew up on the CBC and The Littlest Hobo. I am a product of American and Canadian values and so is Sidekick.”

An original entry in the superhero movie genre, Sidekick follows the misadventures of Norman Neale, a comic book obsessed, computer geek, whose life finds new meaning when he discovers a cocky fellow co-worker, Victor Ventura, has slight telekinetic abilities. Norman endeavors to turn Victor into a superhero by helping him expand his abilities with dreams of one day becoming his trusty sidekick.

“And I think the fact that I chose to write a superhero movie about a sidekick and not a hero says a lot about how I think Canadian film can bring a unique perspective to world cinema,” adds Sparaga.

If the title and concept sound familiar, it is because Sidekick was first produced as an independent movie by Sparaga under the label VICTORY MAN PRODUCTIONS in the Spring of 2004. VICTORY MAN retains all distribution rights in the original picture, which stars talented Canadian newcomers David Ingram, Perry Mucci and Mackenzie Lush alongside co-star Daniel Baldwin (John Carpenter's Vampires, Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge and the Emmy-winning series Homicide: Life on the Street). For more information on the original film, visit www.sidekickmovie.com.

MAPLE FLAVOUR FILMS is an independent entertainment production company formed with the mandate to produce commercially viable Canadian feature films. Sparaga was repped in the deal by his agent, Janine Cheeseman of Aurora Artists, Inc.