Vancouver: Local writer/producer Chris Haddock is working up Canada’s first multi-genre series for cbc. The writer from MacGyver and creator of Mom p.i. is merging a police drama with a medical drama and, you guessed it, a legal drama in a series about a Vancouver coroner. It’s called Da Vinci’s Inquest.

British Columbia Film, cbc and Telefilm Canada already have money in to develop the first three scripts, says Haddock. Cameras should begin rolling on the first season’s 13 one-hours in the spring.

Haddock says he’ll try and emulate the realistic and gritty style of popular British series Cracker and Prime Suspect and he’ll keep the stories Vancouver-based.

And while a new Vancouver drama has been a long time coming, there are plenty of them in development, says the head of cbc Vancouver’s newly revived television development office.

Susan Stranks, in the job since September, is talking to as many independent producers as she can find to fulfill her new mandate. Vancouver has been designated a cbc development center along with Toronto and Halifax.

Her department, meanwhile, is off to an early start with a new 13-part variety series that goes before the cameras Jan. 8. The as-yet untitled production is a ‘slim’ budget contemporary music show featuring b.c. musicians, a live audience and celebrity hosts.

The show will appear March 1, 1997 and air in a late-night time slot on Saturdays. It will be broadcast on the cbc network, but not in simulcast.

-He shoots, he airs

With the airing of the five-part, five-hour Legends of Hockey, Vancouver’s Opus Pictures has leap-frogged from being a book publisher to a television producer.

The first of four cycles of shows ran until Dec. 9 on tsn and the second cycle began Dec. 15.

Company president Derek Murray – who has forged a career in stills photography and for the past decade has moonlighted as a television ad director – says development of the production side of Opus is his only concern right now.

Legends of Hockey – which follows up on Opus’ sports-oriented coffee table books about sports stars like Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky and Mohammed Ali – features interviews with 40 hockey greats and chronicles Canada’s winter pastime from Lord Stanley through to the modern era.

Its style is reminiscent of the critically acclaimed documentary maker Ken Burns, whose multi-part specials about baseball and the Civil War are considered by many the epitome of craftsmanship.

‘Legends is less about hockey and more about the human spirit, following a dream,’ says Murray.

Funding for the $2.1 million Legends came from B.C. Film and the cpf after Murray secured a licence from tsn. Money has since been committed by espn, which will air Legends in the u.s. next year.

Opus recorded 30,000 English- and 10,000 French-language boxed sets for the lucrative sell-through market at Christmas. The boxed set sells for about $90 at the usual outlets and is distributed by Quality Video. Opus will gross about $160,000 if they sell out.

The transition from books to documentaries was not seamless, however.

Vancouver producer Michael Chechik, brought on to generate government funding, was dropped from the management mix and brought lawyers to Murray’s door. The legal wrangling continues.

Murray expects to close two more production deals by the end of January.

tsn is interested in another hockey series, while espn is supposed to commission a series on motor racing.

-Rogers’ rationale

Closing half the community channel production facilities in the Lower Mainland fits with the cable industry’s current vision, claims Vera Piccini, Rogers Cablesystems’ vp of community affairs in Vancouver.

Last month, Rogers fired 20 people in Vancouver and darkened six studios, which prompted cries from communities and independent producers that access was being curtailed and coverage reduced.

But in its submission to the crtc’s broadcast distribution hearings earlier this year, the ccta industry group wanted designated funding (from the mandatory remittance of 5% of gross revenues) to improve the community channels’ coverage, programming and public awareness.

It’s not the paradox it would seem, Piccini maintains. In restructuring here and in Ontario, Rogers will consolidate a fragmented service, create economies of scale (for advertising and promotions) and improve scheduling to act more like a network, she says. That means regular block and strip schedules which are supposed to stimulate wider audiences.

And community groups needn’t worry about having less opportunity to get on the air, Piccini says. The only loss will be the repeat programming about which customers complained.

-Animating business

Animator Stephen Arthur signed a deal with the National Film Board to lengthen his short film Touched Alive, which brings the canvases of West Coast artist Jack Shadbolt to life.

The Vancouver Film School held an open house of its new 3D animation and digital effects campus Dec. 3

-Don’t you know who I am?

For the second time this year, a group of, well, non-Canadians have tried to dupe Immigration Canada officials at Vancouver’s international airport by posing as a movie crew. This time it was 11 from a flight from Korea; in August, it was 11 from India.

While immigration officials are impressed with the novelty, the B.C. Film Commission is not likely using these cases as examples of its effective overseas marketing.

-Wedding night jitters

Linda Evans of Dynasty fame emotes in the mow Stepsister for the USA Network. Evans and Bridgette Wilson (Last Action Hero) play a mother-daughter team who attract wealthy men, marry them (at least Evans does) and then do them in for the money. It wraps Dec. 20.