{"id":1656,"date":"2007-03-21T08:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-21T08:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial\/"},"modified":"2007-03-21T08:43:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-21T08:43:00","slug":"canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html","title":{"rendered":"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

CanWest News Service \u2014 in a story that appears in the Financial Post<\/a><\/i>, the Vancouver Sun<\/a><\/i>, and probably elsewhere too \u2014 picks up on the news that Stephen Frears is in talks to direct The Burial<\/a><\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n

A controversial U.S. court case that led to one of Canada\u2019s most spectacular corporate collapses of the 1990s is headed for the big screen.<\/p>\n

The Oscar-nominated director of The Queen is reportedly set to give David-and-Goliath treatment to the story of how a Mississippi funeral home owner and his crusading lawyer brought down Loewen Group, the B.C.- based \u201cdeath-care\u201d empire.<\/p>\n

Stephen Frears \u2014 the acclaimed British filmmaker who directed last year\u2019s widely lauded portrait of Queen Elizabeth grappling with the death of Princess Diana \u2014 is said to be negotiating to direct a film about the landmark 1995 legal battle that led to Loewen\u2019s bankruptcy four years later.<\/p>\n

The film, says The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, is based on a lengthy 1999 article about the Loewen lawsuit published in The New Yorker.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s anything like the magazine piece, the cinematic adaptation of The Burial is likely to cast former Canadian funeral mogul Ray Loewen in a villainous light, and his courtroom nemeses \u2014 white Biloxi businessman Jeremiah O\u2019Keefe, and his black attorney, Willie Gary \u2014 as plainspoken underdogs who overcome racial friction to defeat a foreign corporate juggernaut.<\/p>\n

Loewen\u2019s planned purchase of two O\u2019Keefe funeral parlours in 1991 \u2014 a tiny fraction of the Canadian company\u2019s exponential growth across North America at that time \u2014 fell apart over Mr. O\u2019Keefe\u2019s accusations that Loewen Group failed to live up to its side of the bargain.<\/p>\n

A Mississippi jury, persuaded by Mr. Gary\u2019s depiction of Loewen as a high-flying, alien marauder, awarded O\u2019Keefe a wildly inflated US$500-million in compensatory and punitive damages.<\/p>\n

At the time, Mr. Loewen condemned \u201cthe injustice that has been done\u201d and one of his lawyers described the court ruling as legalized \u201cextortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two sides later settled for a payment in cash and stock options amounting to about US$200-million \u2014 a massive payout that staggered Loewen Group and proved to be a key factor in forcing the firm into bankruptcy in 1999.<\/p>\n

The company restructured and re-emerged in 2002 \u2014 without Ray Loewen at the helm\u2013as Alderwoods Group, a funeral-and-cemetery service that recently merged with Loewen\u2019s former archrival, U.S.-based Service Corp. International.<\/p>\n

Mr. Loewen himself has continued, so far unsuccessfully, a legal fight to obtain compensation under NAFTA rules for the Mississippi court\u2019s alleged anti- Canadian bias and the exorbitant damages it awarded to Mr. O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n

Financial Post columnist Diane Francis has described the award as a \u201ccourt-sanctioned shakedown in Mississippi\u201d that unfairly ruined Loewen Group and should have prompted loud objections from the Canadian government. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Incidentally, the New Yorker<\/i> story on which this movie will be based is available here<\/a> as a PDF file.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CanWest News Service \u2014 in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too \u2014 picks up on the news that Stephen Frears is in talks to direct The Burial: A controversial U.S. court case that led to one of Canada\u2019s most spectacular corporate collapses of the 1990s is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCanadian newspapers notice The Burial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CanWest News Service -- in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too -- picks up on the news that Stephen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CanWest News Service -- in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too -- picks up on the news that Stephen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-21T08:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html\",\"name\":\"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-03-21T08:43:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-03-21T08:43:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"CanWest News Service -- in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too -- picks up on the news that Stephen\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial","description":"CanWest News Service -- in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too -- picks up on the news that Stephen","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial","og_description":"CanWest News Service -- in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too -- picks up on the news that Stephen","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2007-03-21T08:43:00+00:00","author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html","name":"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-03-21T08:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-21T08:43:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"CanWest News Service -- in a story that appears in the Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun, and probably elsewhere too -- picks up on the news that Stephen","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/03\/canadian-newspapers-notice-the-burial.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Canadian newspapers notice The Burial"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}