Although Disney Channel offered to greenlight another order of Insight Productions’ hit teen series Ready or Not, John Brunton declined, deciding the characters and storyline had been stretched far enough after 65 eps.

But he is setting his sights on another adolescent series – this one for boys – with a circle of friends on a local hockey team providing the backdrop for the coming-of-age storylines. Working title is Hockey Boys and Insight is negotiating with Peter Mitchell, who wrote for Madison, to pen the 13-episode series.

An American cable broadcaster is close to signing on the series and preliminary discussions are underway with Canadian broadcasters, says Brunton. Whether the show will be a half-hour or an hour hasn’t been pinned down.

Rough budget figures are $350,000 to 400,000 for a half-hour and $600,000 to $700,000 if the show runs an hour. Brunton aims to have a deal in place by January to deliver a pilot mid-spring and a full 13 eps for fall ’98.

Insight has picked up rights to Sting, the true story of a group of young men who switched a horse in the 1924 Queen’s Plate as part of a u.s. gambling scam, and is close to signing a two-hour mow deal with Global. David Barlow, a writer on the Cold Squad series, is working on the script.

The production company is also wetting its feet in feature filmmaking with the optioning of Michael Ignatieff’s book Scar Tissue about a son confronting his mother’s slow disintegration from Alzheimer’s Disease.

John Murrell is at second draft stage on a script for the $2-million project. R.H. Thompson has been attached to lead the cast and Eric Till (Falling For You) is directing.

With a number of American network specials under its belt and u.s. sales of Ready or Not, Insight has managed to make strong inroads into the u.s. market. abc has signed the prodco to produce a special launching Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Disney’s largest theme park to date. Production begins in February, with the bulk of the shoot scheduled for April. The one-hour will air in abc’s Disney Sunday night slot.

A deal with a u.s. network is in the works to produce a Sarajevo special taking a number of international Olympic athletes, including Scott Hamilton, Brian Orser and Katarina Witt, back to the site of the 1984 Olympic Games.

The program will provide a striking contrast between the Olympic ideal of friendly competition among nations and how these ideals have been betrayed in a city destroyed by hatred, violence and ethnic cleansing.

Sarajevo media outlets have agreed to provide footage taken from the battle zone and the International Olympic Committee has indicated its support of the tv special. Clearance has been secured from the military in Sarajevo to bring in cast and crew. All audio, broadcast and technical requirements will have to be picked up in Germany or flown in via military planes from North America. A May shoot is tentatively scheduled.

Brunton is looking at Sheryl Crow, who made a tour of Sarajevo, as a possible host for the show, which will run 90 minutes to two hours.

Brunton has shopped the cbc, where there is interest.

Kevin Albrect of the International Management Group, a sports marketing company, is partner on the Sarajevo project.

Insight is also gearing up to begin production on a one-hour special on the life and contributions of three-time world free-skating champion Toller Cranston. Negotiations are underway with cbc to license the program.

Staff are also being kept hopping with a 65-ep order of the live Open Mike with Mike Bullard show, currently airing Monday to Friday in an 8-9 p.m. slot on The Comedy Network.

*Finkleman set to shoot

The Newsroom’s notorious George Findlay (played by Ken Finkleman) is set to reemerge on the cbc, but this time the egomaniacal, self-centered character’s antics will take to the streets.

In the six half-hours (working title More Tears) set to shoot beginning Nov. 17, Findlay is a field producer causing no end of agony for the reporters, camera and sound people he totes along with him on location in this media satire. Finkleman is the only returning cast member from The Newsroom.

Finkleman is again writing, directing and producing. Jennifer Scott, who worked on The Newsroom as assistant to the exec producer, is taking on the role of associate producer. Cast includes Atom Egoyan’s wife Arsinee Khanjian.

*Screenwriters crack U.S. market

Two young screenwriters are becoming the dynamic duo on the u.s. kids’ scene. Rob Baird and Kelly Senecal, who first teamed up at Ryerson Polytechnic University, have just wrapped a stint on Saban Entertainment’s Breaker High story team and are now writing The Mermaid Next Door, a Saban pilot for Family Channel.

According to Harrison Artist Management, which represents Baird and Senecal, Saban also wants the pair to pen the pilot for its new Addams Family series to be based on the original cartoon. The show will air on Fox Kids.

*Book option trials

Remember Sanjay Burman from a previous column – the 22-year-old former ytv host who managed to weasel his way into a 90-day free option for Richard Scrimger’s book Crosstown and an intent to option deal on Eric Wilson’s book series The Tom and Liz Austin Mysteries? Well, leave it to say Burman is considering writing his own book chronicling his rocky road into the film biz.

According to Burman, Alliance’s Julia Rosenberg was considering exec producing the Crosstown feature if he could bring a director to the project. Montreal’s Darryll Wasyk agreed to direct and coproduce Crosstown with Burman and brought actors Bruce Davison and Jennifer Dale to the project.

In the deal, Wasyk would also direct and produce the Wilson series, but according to Burman, the author didn’t see eye to eye with Wasyk and forced the director out of the project. A not-too-happy Wasyk abandoned Crosstown as well, taking the cast with him. At that point, Burman says Alliance waved him good-bye.

When contacted, Alliance’s response was ‘no comment.’

Although the Crosstown project appears to be dead in the water, The Tom and Liz Austin Mysteries has produced some promising leads.

Burman shopped Family Channel’s Kevin Wright and landed a development deal for a one-hour pilot. The only catch is he has to find an exec producer. Cambium Film and Video Productions and Great North Productions are currently bidding on this ‘Hardy Boys meets Murder on the Orient Express’ aimed at six- to 15-year-olds. Both companies have laid out a 13-ep deal, says Burman.

But since he is only representing the option, the production companies are negotiating directly with the author and Burman is a tad worried he may be cut out of the deal. He is looking for a producing credit on the show – after all, he started the ball rolling. Not only did he land Family, he also secured Patrick Granleese, who has penned scripts for Cinar and Atlantis, to write the pilot, and has attached Marina Sirtis from Star Trek: The Next Generation to the project in a leading role.

Great North’s Elaine Scott confirms that the company is in advanced negotiations for the series. She adds that Burman will be involved in some producer capacity on the show.

*Rats

A three-year rat infestation at the house he was renting in Toronto’s Yorkville district (by not one but three different packs of rats) is the inspiration behind Jacques Holender’s new documentary Rats.

Coproduced by the National Film Board’s Peter Star, the $400,000 project begins shooting in December, with locations scheduled in Toronto, Detroit, New York City and Baltimore. Cinematographer Robert Fresc is shooting on Super 16.

A 75-minute version for festival and theatrical release as well as a one-hour program for tv will be produced. tvontario, Citytv, scn and Access Alberta have taken windows.

The program will chronicle how societies over the centuries have tried unsuccessfully to control rats and explores the public horror and hysteria surrounding the vermin.

Parts of the film will take the point of view of the rats themselves as they travel through the sewer system. To create the effect, Holender has constructed a maze of rat-infested sewers in a warehouse and set up miniature digital remote-control cameras on dollies to follow them.

Yes, this is probably more information than you want to know, but apparently rats deprived of food cannibalize each other, and Holender plans to capture some of this gory footage on camera.

Incidentally, one of Holender’s previous films was a part documentary, part fictional account of the processing of a body by the death industries called Time Is On My Side.

On a lighter note, Holender recently directed and produced Staged, The Architecture of Pop Concerts, a one-hour doc from Nemesis Productions, licensed to MuchMusic and a&e. The evolution of the rock concert from the simple sets of the Beatles to the megatours of the ’90s is interspersed with clips from a number of rock icons such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Pete Townsend.

*New networking group

There’s Women In Film and Television, Canadian Women in Communications, Up Your Arts and The Entertainment Network among the assortment of Toronto film and tv meet-and-mingle groups. Now a newcomer has joined the ranks – The Film & TV Collective.

Tina Horowitz from Credentials and Ellis Enterprises’ Bailey Daniels are organizing the new forum, which they envision as informal soirees where ‘ambitious up-and-comers’ in the film and tv biz can socialize, take part in professional development, and make those crucial contacts required to move ahead in the biz. Horowitz says she would like to see the assortment of networking groups merge in the new unit, with a particular focus on film and tv.

*MATCH benefit

The Toronto chapter of MATCH International Centre, a group of women who use their resources in Canada to help eliminate violence against women in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America, is looking to the film and tv community to help support its latest fundraising effort, a special presentation of the musical Rent on Nov. 30 at the Royal Alex. The Canadian International Development Agency matches funds raised by match to help support its projects. Call (416) 761-7651 for info.