TORONTO (CP) - A Hollywood movie chronicling the crimes of Karla Homolka likely won't hit Canadian theatres until fall to avoid the emotional outcry surrounding the schoolgirl killer's release from prison this summer, the film's producer said Tuesday.

Michael Sellers said a special Toronto pre-screening of Deadly, which was originally planned for late June, might also be pushed back so it doesn't coincide with the July 5 expiry of Homolka's 12-year prison sentence. "As I watch that news coverage coming out of (Canada), it's all Karla, all the time," Sellers said from his Los Angeles office.

"I don't want to be a part of that circus, I don't think we should be. I don't think it's the right thing."

Deadly tells the story of Homolka's ill-fated union with Paul Bernardo, a coupling that ultimately claimed the lives of Ontario schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, along with Homolka's younger sister, Tammy.

Laura Prepon, who plays Donna on TV's That 70s Show, portrays Homolka as a "woman conflicted by her conscience but unable to escape" the grasp of Bernardo, who's played by Misha Collins, the film's website says.

Homolka was sentenced in 1993 to 12 years in prison in exchange for testimony against her husband, in which she portrayed herself as an unwitting victim. But caustic videotapes documenting the rape and torture of their victims later appeared to expose her as a willing participant in the crimes.

Critics branded her plea bargain a "deal with the devil."

Bernardo was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, handed a life sentence and subsequently declared a dangerous offender.

News of the grisly events horrified Canadians, a fact that both supporters and critics of Sellers's film have used to argue their cases both for and against its release.

Sellers had offered lawyer Tim Danson, who represents the French and Mahaffy families, the chance to view the film in advance of its release, but Sellers said he's considering waiting until after July 4 - the day Homolka is expected to go free.

"I'm contemplating the possibility of delaying that screening until after she gets out," he said.

"Karla coming out must be difficult for (the families). Having to deal with this (screening) at the same time as dealing with that . . .I just feel like we shouldn't do it unless we really have a need to."

His production company, Quantum Entertainment, plans a September or October release for Deadly. It would take "a major Canadian distributor banging on my door" to put the film into theatres before then, he said.

"I'm almost to the point of saying if a distributor came to us and said they wanted to distribute it in July or August, I would say no."

The growing media spotlight on Homolka, who's serving out her final days at the Joliette Institution near Montreal, is sure to mean Canadians will again be forced to endure the horrific details of her crimes.

Next week, Ontario Crown lawyers will travel to Quebec in an effort to convince a provincial court judge to impose restrictions on Homolka under the Criminal Code.

That extraordinary request, if granted, would see the 35-year-old submit to a range of conditions including a curfew, regular meetings with police and rules regarding her acquaintances.




I am so glad they plan on holding off releasing this film until the Fall. As it is, people are sickened that this monster is getting out when she is. She should be locked up and the keys thrown away like her ex-husband, Paul.

I feel so badly every time this story makes news again. It's been absolute hell on the parents of their victims each time as their daughters faces are always put on the front page of every paper. It's been about 14 years now and they still can't rest in peace.

I never thought I would want to see a human murdered, but I really hope that someone does us all the favour when Karla's released and takes her out -preferrably the same way she took out her sister and the other girls. I find her crimes even worse than his. :mad:

I realize how large and roomy my rock is... but i haven't heard of this. if you do n't mind me asking, what did she do?

I thought this case made the news in the States too because it was so horrendus. My aunt had heard about it (she lives in Dallas) and we loaned her a book about it (which I've never gotten back).

These two (Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo) are the sickest creeps on earth.
In the late 80s/early 90s in Scarborough (an eastern suburb of Toronto) there were a lot of rapes on women. The cops knew they were looking for one guy and they did get DNA samples from Paul but couldn't hold him on evidence and let him go. The labs were backed up, so it took two years for the sample to be processed.

In the meantime, Paul meets this Karla and they had sex for 3 hours within 30 minutes of meeting each other. Long story short, they got married in 1991 in this huge "fairytale" wedding with a horse drawn carriage, the whole bit.

On the Christmas before their wedding, they were at her parent's place drinking (somehow Paul moved in with them) and decided to knock out Karla's 15 yr old virginal sister with booze and drugs from the vet where she worked. She actually "gave" her sister to him as a "Christmas gift". She participated in the rape of her own sister. Her sister, Tammy started to vomit from the drugs and they just allowed her to die and made it like it was accidental - that she just drank too much, threw up and choked.

Then, when they were living together, just two weeks before their wedding, they kidnapped a schoolgirl who had been locked out of her house. They would use Karla to approach the girls and then while she had them distracted, Paul would grab them at knifepoint and shove them in their car. They then took the girl home and over the weekend, repeatedly raped her, sodomized her and beat her. They chained her up in their basement. That Sunday was Father's Day and they knew they had to go to their parents' places so they killed her with an electrical cord. The next day, he cut her body up into pieces, placed them in cement and left her in a canal by St. Catharines (near the U.S. border at Buffalo).

Didn't stop there - they did it again after they were married. Kidnapped another school girl in a church parking lot. Held her in their basement for two weeks doing the same sort of things until their parents visited. They murdered her and left her body at the side of a road.

There are a LOT more details too - but too long and graphic to post here.
Karla gets nabbed with him and tried telling the cops that she was a victim too - that he beat her and made her do those things. So, our justice system cut a deal with her to turn evidence in about him, and they'd give her a lesser sentence. He got a life sentence and she got 12 years. In the meantime, she's been given a university degree while in jail and has taken on lovers (she tried to tell the court that she didn't like being with girls - she only did it for him). Funny how their victims looked very similar to the lover she hooked up with in jail.

Also, after they're sentenced, their corrupt lawyer comes forward and says he "just" found video tapes of the rapes and murders. Turns out little Karla was very much a happy participant - every bit as much as he was. There are also loads of "love notes" she left him saying how much she loved it when he did the sick things he did. You wouldn't believe how beyond kinky these two were - both total sexual deviates.

Now he's bad enough - but what scumbug female, not only is turned on by a rapist, but offers up her own little sister, murders her, trolls for other victims for him, and participates in all this? I say she's even worse than him - meanwhile, she's due in court this Thursday to set the terms for her release in July of this year. We're hoping and pushing for at least strict restrictions be put on her. Apparently doctors have said she's just as sick as him, hasn't be rehabilitated and is still a danger on her own to offend again.

I swear this is just about the SICKEST story I've ever heard of. It's HUGE news up here.

. . . damn