Shooting begins this September in Toronto on 26 one-hour episodes of Protocol Entertainment’s production of Code Name: Eternity. Global has purchased the Canadian window and will begin airing the series sometime in 1999.

Paul Bronfman, chairman of Protocol, says the budget for the sci-fi series – billed as ‘The Fugitive meets Starman’ – will be in excess of $1 million per episode.

Foreign partners are French producer Dune s.a., UFA Film Productions of Germany and French broadcaster M6. International distribution will be handled by Warner Bros. No u.s. sale has been made, but Bronfman says talks are underway.

The series has been in development at Protocol for approximately three years. Steve Levitan, president of Protocol, says Global has been committed since the series’ inception and that Warner Bros. International Television Production was key in assembling the foreign partners.

Bronfman says although the show is ‘definitely 10 out of 10 Cancon,’ tax credits will be the only government incentive used in the financing package.

Casting for the lead characters of a woman and an alien is underway.

– Sound Venture to service Justice

Ottawa’s Sound Venture Productions has signed an agreement to assist and facilitate the Atlantis Communications production of the two-hour mow pilot Justice.

Created, written and exec produced by Alyson Feltes (Traders), the pilot is set within the halls of the Canadian Department of Justice and begins lensing in the Ottawa/Hull region July 6. After a week in the nation’s capital, the production will move back to Toronto for three more weeks of shooting.

Global and Atlantis are developing Justice as an ongoing series. The Atlantis Films production is produced with the participation of the ctcpf’s eip and lfp, as well as the federal and provincial indigenous tax credits. Financing for the development of the pilot was partly funded by Rogers Telefund.

Richard Lewis (Whale Music) is helming the pilot and Sound Venture president Neil Bregman will help facilitate the logistics for the Atlantis production team, assisting with location arrangements, local crew, and cast and extras requirements while Justice is in Ottawa.

Brian Dennis (Hard Core Logo, The Rez) is producing the approximately $3.2-million pilot, which deals with the issue of Quebec sovereignty and the political disintegration of Canada, combining moral dilemmas, power struggles and intellectual cynicism.

And although the production is scheduled to deliver mid-October, the folks at the real Canadian Department of Justice in Ottawa have reportedly requested that the show not air on Global prior to the unity decision.

Feltes will not be returning to the fourth season of Traders, where Peter Mitchell has been hired to head up the writing team. Former co-exec producer Hart Hanson has also left the show and is reportedly entertaining writing/producing offers from prodcos and broadcasters in the u.s.

– More dogs at Amberwood

Sheldon Wiseman’s Ottawa-based Amberwood Productions has received another series order, this time from ytv for 13 episodes of the preschool animated series Pumper Pups.

Budgeted at $1.8 million, the half-hours follow the adventures of Pumper the talking fire truck. Actor Leslie Nielsen will narrate Pumper Pups, which was created for Amberwood by Gerald Tripp.

Wiseman, who will exec produce, says ctcpf lfp funds have been allocated for the production but Amberwood’s lfp application has yet to be fully reviewed by the fund.

Production should start in late summer with a late spring delivery date. The completed episodes will go to air on ytv and/or Treehouse beginning in fall ’99.

Mary MacKay-Smith will pen the scripts.

The series currently has no distributor but Wiseman has been talking with Alliance Communications.

Family Channel recently ordered 13 episodes of the animated Hoze Houndz from Amberwood.

– NYC quake in T.O.

Saban Entertainment is shooting in t.o. for the first time on the mow Earthquake in New York for Fox Family Channel. Canadian Gavin Mitchell (Kung Fu, Black Robe designer) is producing as well as production designing the project through his company Northquake Productions. Writer Michael Sloan is exec producing and Lance Robbins is co-exec producing.

Greg Evigan (TekWar) stars as a cop who moved his family to nyc after the l.a. quake only to be caught in an 8.2 earthquake. Cynthia Gibb, Michael Moriarty and Michael Sarrazin costar.

Mitchell says the production is relying heavily on both practical and cgi effects to create a realistic devastated Manhattan, and Toronto’s Spin Productions has scored the contract.

Canadian director Terry Ingram is at the helm of the healthily budgeted disaster flick. Mike Lee will handle the edit on the project, skedded to broadcast on Fox Family Sept. 23.

Mitchell is hoping to do some more disaster-type projects for Saban, which has 26 mows scheduled to go into production this year for Fox Family.

‘Saban has done a lot of work in Vancouver and some in Montreal, so getting them here is a bit of a coup,’ says Mitchell. ‘I’m very interested in getting them here on a regular basis.’

– Calling Card funds pilot

OFDC Calling Card recipient Big Star Entertainment is using its funding to produce a half-hour comedy series pilot instead of a short film.

Produced by Frank A. Deluca and directed by Giacomo Moncada, Commedia follows an Italian restaurateur who struggles with the reality of becoming famous on a local cable cooking show.

The series was originally created by Tony D. Franco and Angelo Stea and was reportedly optioned at one time by Fox and Alliance Communications as The Cooking Commission.

The pilot was shot in early June north of Toronto and features Nick Mancuso, Jennifer Dale and Tony Risotto.

– Mitchell’s Insight

Toronto’s Insight Productions has wrapped two days of shooting on the Warner Bros. lot in l.a. for a one-hour Joni Mitchell special for cbc.

The in-the-round-style intimate concert is a coventure between Insight and u.s.-based Eagle Rock plc, which has distribution rights.

Insight’s John Brunton wrote and exec produced the concert of mostly new Mitchell songs along with Geoffrey Kempin, Terry Shand, Sam Feldman and Steve Macklan. Joan Tosoni directed the video shoot, which will post in t.o.