As the cast and crew of Sullivan Entertainment’s Wind At My Back get a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel production-wise, Kevin Sullivan and Trudy Grant have bought outright the Scarborough facility that’s been home to the series for the last 13 episodes. The five acres of land includes the production office and interiors in what was formerly a sign company, and the elaborate 360-degree period backlot which plays the fictional town of New Bedford, Ont. in the 1930s.

‘When we’re not using it there’s the potential of renting it out to other studios,’ says Grant. ‘There’s also the possibility of having it as a tourist attraction for a period of time, a place where people can go and learn about the film industry.’

The cost of the backlot, estimated to be in the range of $500,000 by Ray Sager, executive in charge of production, came from the budget for Wind at my Back. The company says the production saved enough in travel, overtime and other costs associated with being on location to make building the facility sensible economically.

There won’t be much downtime when the series wraps in January; Grant says the company will be producing a tv movie after Christmas. She says there are 14 projects in development and under discussion for natpe in January, including the possibility of producing a series and a package of three tv movies with the Japanese.

As for Sullivan’s forays in features, there are three in the works: Piano Man’s Daughter, a coproduction with Whoopi Goldberg; Captain Courageous, for which a search is underway to attach a ‘huge star,’ according to Grant; and The Gathering, a movie based on an Australian novel for which the script is being completed now.

-YTV and Empire in Deepwater

Casting and preproduction are underway in Toronto for Deepwater Black, the sci-fi live-action/3D animation series being coproduced by ytv, Toronto’s Empire Entertainment and USA Networks in the u.s. Thirteen half-hour episodes will be turned out in a 10-week production period beginning Jan. 20.

Based on the novels of New Zealand author Ken Catran, Deepwater Black features six genetically enhanced teens who manage to survive after a dna plague wipes out the planet.

No confirmation on a per episode budget from executive producer Wilk Copeland of Empire, but the series is set for a mid-season launch on usa and ytv in mid-March.

-More for teensŠ

Toronto’s MicroTainment Plus, a partnership between Garry Blye and Mark Shekter, has a multiple script order from cbc for Dick and Tracy, a half-hour, primetime, live-action detective series for teens. The series was created and written by Shekter and codeveloped with Blye.

What sets the series apart is a ‘3D graphics’ component. ‘We’re a dual-stream multimedia company working in animation and live action,’ says Shekter. ‘We’re blending analog and digital.’

The partners are currently in discussion with coproduction partners as they continue work on packaging the series. They hope the project will be ready to begin production late this spring.

Dick and Tracy isn’t the only project on the company’s development list. The pair are working with Hollywood-based Toronto native Rob Iscove to develop a theatrical feature. ‘It’s a drama with music,’ says Shekter.

Iscove’s credits as a director/ producer include Profit for Fox and a dozen made-for-tv movies in the last four years.

-Most honorable Polkaroo

Polkaroo’s a very well-traveledŠwhat? Well, let’s just say he gets around, regardless of what he is, exactly.

His latest coup is Asia. At the recent Shanghai Television Market, tvontario sold 89 episodes of Polka Dot Shorts to both Oriental Television in Shanghai and Liaoning Television in Liaoning Province, a potential audience of more than 125 million. More importantly, perhaps, was a coproduction deal forged with Oriental Television for 60-65 10-minute episodes of an animated series based on Polka Dot Shorts to air in China and on tvo.

tvo will supply the characters, the design and the scripts, according to Wally Longul, tvo’s director of business development and international affairs. Oriental Television’s recent acquisitions include an animation studio, so the match was made in heaven. tvo hopes the animated series will infiltrate other international markets, and the marketing opportunities within China for tvo’s licensed characters are potentially golden.

‘Merchandise based on tv programming didn’t exist in China a few years ago,’ says Longul. ‘But it is starting to develop.’

It seems there are a number of reasons why rugrats in Asia love Polkaroo and Co. as much as their Canadian counterparts. ‘It’s very active and colorful, and that’s counter to some of the programming produced in Asia for children,’ says Longul. Asian broadcasters also like the ‘social values’ inherent in the programs, a feature that Longul believes the Chinese versions will likely step up.

-Toronto breaks for Santa

Pre-Christmas, the seasonal lull and the holidays mean that most of the big-ticket projects now in production will be gearing down come mid-December.

Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter is scheduled to wrap Dec. 18, just after Sidney Lumet’s Critical Care (a production from Live Entertainment and Orion Pictures) and Miramax’s Mimic (directed by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Mira Sorvino) call it a day.

Paragon’s fifth HandMade Films feature, Dinner at Fred’s, is also slated to wrap mid to late December. The directorial debut of actor/writer Shawn Alex Thompson (Hairspray, Heads), Dinner stars Gil Bellows (The Shawshank Redemption and Paragon’s The Assistant), Parker Posey (Dazed and Confused), Kevin McDonald (Kids In The Hall), John Neville (Billy Budd) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) in Thompson’s original comedy screenplay.

It’s getting too cold for the cable movie crowd, too. Paramount’s Family Therapy and mgm tv’s Evidence of Blood (both for Showtime) will be done by the first week of December.