# Rose & Ruby Productions

Rose & Ruby Productions, also known as Rose and Ruby Pictures, was a Canadian sports promotion and film production company founded in 1977. It was one of the country's notable producers of televised sports programming before establishing itself as a purveyor of genre movies in the 1980s and early 1990s. For much of its history, the company was anchored by directors Damian Lee and David Mitchell.

## History

Rose & Ruby Productions' originally specialized in the organization of competitions for "everyman" athletes, which it placed on television for the benefit of a corporate sponsor, a concept that Lee had popularized in the Canadian market shortly before the creation of Rose & Ruby itself. Many of these programs were seen on the Canadian version of Wide World of Sports broadcast on the CTV network. The company later graduated to sports featuring professional or established amateur athletes, often for CTV as well. In 1977, Rose & Ruby tried to set up a professional tennis tournament for the following March at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens to replace the dormant Rothmans International, but the event did not proceed. In 1983, the company also applied to the CRTC for a license to operate a pay sports television channel.
While it did not get its own channel, the emergence of premium cable outlets looking to satisfy Canadian content obligations, such as First Choice, opened the door to branch out into fiction content. Rose & Ruby also took advantage of the tax shelter opportunities that were synonymous with Canadian film financing at the time although, according to Lee, the boom of international pre-sales during the second half of the 1980s allowed the company to distance itself from that sometimes stigmatized model. Bodybuilder Franco Columbu, who contributed to several of Rose & Ruby's mid- to late 1980s features, was a partner in the company and was listed as its American representative at the time. In later years, Rose & Ruby also named veteran cameraman and director of photography Curtis Petersen as its Vice President of Production.
In 1993, Rose & Ruby entered a multi-picture financing partnership with Menahem Golan's 21st Century Films, which was struggling to find banking support. It included National Lampoon's Last Resort (21st Century was initially mentioned as co-producer but later only as international distributor), Death Wish V: The Face of Death and the less commercial Crime and Punishment. However, Lee was not credited in the final version of Crime and Punishment, and although he remained on board as producer of the other films, the Rose & Ruby label was phased out from them as well. After that batch of Golan collaborations, Lee focused his efforts on another outfit headquartered on the same premises, called Richmond House, to whom former Rose & Ruby associate David Mitchell briefly collaborated early on.

## Filmography
### Sports (select list)

| Year | Title | | Broadcaster/Distributor |
| 1978–1984 | The Great Canadian Challenge/The Gillette Challenge | Fitness | CTV |
| 1978–1982 | Datsun Special | Gymkhana | CTV |
| 1979 | GMC Jimmy Showdown | Gymkhana | CTV |
| 1979 | Canadian Frisbee Championships | Frisbee | CTV |
| 1981 | Cointreau Cup | Racquet sports | CTV |
| 1981–8? | Yesterday in the CFL | Gridiron football | CTV |
| 1982 | Hitachi Mile | Running | CTV |
| 1982 | Avon Women's Marathon | Running | CTV |
| 1983 | National Fitness Test | Fitness | CTV (unconfirmed) |
| 1985 | WPSA Hardball | Squash | CTV Rose & Ruby Prods (video) |

### Fiction

| Year | Title | Domestic distributor | Notes |
| 1983 | Copper Mountain: A Club Med Experience | First Choice (TV premiere) | |
| 1984 | Reno & the Doc | First Choice (TV premiere) Pan-Canadian Film Distributors (theatrical) | |
| 1986 | Screwball Academy | Rose & Ruby Productions | Also known as Loose Ends |
| 1986 | Busted Up | Cineplex Odeon Films | |
| 1987 | Circle Man | Cineplex Odeon Films | Also known as Last Man Standing |
| 1987 | City of Shadows | Cineplex Odeon Films | With Shapiro Entertainment |
| 1988 | The Miles Ahead | First Choice (TV premiere) Cineplex Odeon Films (home video) | Also known as Hot Sneakers |
| 1988 | Watchers | Alliance Releasing | With Concorde Pictures and Carolco Pictures |
| 1989 | Food of the Gods II | Alliance Releasing | With Concorde Pictures and Carolco Pictures Also known as Gnaw: Food of the Gods II |
| 1989 | Thunderground | Cineplex Odeon Films | |
| 1990 | Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe | Cineplex Odeon Films | |
| 1990 | Ski School | Famous Players (Cineplex Odeon Films in some sources) | |
| 1991 (or 1987) | Deadly Descent | First Choice (TV Premiere) | |
| 1992 | Baby on Board | Cinépix/Famous Players Distribution | With Sandy Howard Productions and World Entertainment Network |
| 1994 | National Lampoon's Last Resort | C/FP Video (video premiere) | Uncredited With Amritraj Entertainment |
| 1994 | Death Wish V: The Face of Death | Cinépix/Famous Players Distribution | Uncredited With 21st Century Film Corporation |