Vancouver: Producer Nick Orchard is about to become the sole owner of Soapbox Productions, producer of the teen dramatic series Northwood. By month’s end, a deal will be finalized which allows Orchard to buy out his partner in the five-year-old company, Toronto-based producer Pat Ferns of Primedia.

‘I prefer to own the company myself,’ says Orchard. ‘Right now Soapbox is producing primarily Northwood, and since the series has been produced mainly by me, it just seemed right for me to take over control of it.’

Although Orchard declined comment on the terms of the sale, he will purchase Ferns’ 50% stake in Soapbox.

Orchard says when he returned from England in 1988 after working as a producer on the British dramatic series Eastenders, he was not an established name in Canada. ‘It made sense for me to link up with Ferns at that time because Primedia had more of a track record in Canada for doing the kind of dramatic project that I wanted to do. Now that I’ve proven myself and have my own track record here, the partnership is no longer necessary.’

Northwood has had a four-season run on cbc and is now awaiting word on renewal. Orchard says over the course of time, he and Ferns have moved in different directions. ‘Pat is doing mostly documentaries and is involved in a new partnership with Primedia. I am more involved with dramatic series production with different partners on the West Coast. This arrangement just made more sense.’

Orchard is currently in partnership through Zeitgeist Productions with Vancouver writer/producer Rick Drew on a half-hour comedy series created by cartoonist Lynn Johnston called Drawn Together.

Orchard and Drew also recently entered into a script development deal with l.a.-based Ivan Reitman Productions (Meatballs, Ghostbusters) to produce Lifeguards (formerly Forever Summer), a potential series about a group of older teens working their way through college at a summer resort, for Universal TV and mca.

Wayne Sterloff, president and ceo of British Columbia Film, says Orchard’s purchase of Soapbox will strengthen the local industry.

‘Any move by a b.c. company towards expanding their asset base is an excellent move in princpal,’ says Sterloff. ‘I think it’s a growing trend that we are now starting to see more local companies controlling their own destinies.’ He cites as examples Forefront Productions, producers of the teen series Madison, and Omni Film Productions, producers of the dramatic series The Odyssey.

‘The fact that these companies are able to develop and produce quality programming for the networks on their own is an important sign of the development of our indigenous industry. What is next, however, is for these companies to become more vertically integrated so that they can also distribute and export their product.’

Sterloff predicts British Columbia Film will play a more active role in assisting producers with distribution of their projects and hints of a new major program initiative to be announced in the near future.