Current ‘It Boy’ Don McKellar confirms that seven more episodes of his quirky sitcom Twitch City will go before the cameras in Toronto this January for Susan Cavan’s Accent Entertainment.

McKellar says last year’s cast, which included Callum Keith Rennie and Molly Parker, will most likely return, as will director Bruce McDonald, who picked up a Gemini for directing the Twitch episode ‘Killed By Cat Food.’

The director and scribe of Last Night and cowriter of The Red Violin (both expected to open stateside in February through Lions Gate Films) says a couple of ringer cameos will also show up in the upcoming batch of Twitch. As to the identity of said ringers, McKellar isn’t about to let the cat out of the bag.

Meanwhile, McKellar’s script Yummy Fur (the only one he’s ever written that hasn’t been produced) is now in the hands of New York indie powerhouse Good Machine, which will bring Todd Solondz’s upcoming Happiness and Ang Lee’s current production Ride With The Devil to the screen. McDonald is still attached to direct the outrageous adventure film that will most likely require heavy cgi or animation effects.

*Jono has visions of prime

Now into its third season, and recently nominated for a pair of Geminis, cbc’s teen/talk/variety/game show/sketch series Jonovision, starring host Jonathan Torrens, is back with 40 episodes and a time slot edging ever closer to primetime.

A cbc in-house project, Jonovision is shooting at the Broadcast Center until Dec. 4 on a two-week turnaround to keep the shows timely. The series now airs Tuesday through Friday at 5 p.m.

And while sticking to its core focus of issue-driven, themed talk and comedy, Torrens says Jonovision will be more varied this year.

‘Because it’s going to air slightly later at 5 o’clock, we’ve made it into more of a variety show,’ says Torrens. Among the musical acts hitting the Jonopalooza stage this season will be Rusty, The Killjoys, Wild Strawberries, Dayna Manning and Wide Mouth Mason.

Often frustrated with the task of trying to produce a flashy, appealing variety show on an afternoon kids’ show budget, long-term plans for Jonovision could include moving to an even later time period as its audience matures.

‘Five o’clock is a good start, fourth season 7:30, and by season nine we hope to be going head to head with the late-night guys,’ says cocreator/producer Richard Mortimer somewhat facetiously. But in jest, Mortimer touches on a thread of truth that could see the show’s creative core (who have all worked on cbc shows for years) mature to become primetime players for Canadian tv viewers.

Torrens, for example, is developing a live-action series along with his partners at Halifax-based Torrential Pictures on the heels of a successful series of shorts, including the Gemini-winning Nan’s Taxi for Global.

Jonovision is produced by creators Lynn Harvey and Mortimer (Mortimer also directs) for cbc. In their other capacity as principals at Twist Productions, Harvey and Mortimer have just wrapped another 26 episodes of their Sharon, Lois and Bram preschool series Skinnamarink tv (cbc, The Learning Channel), bringing the total to 52. The duo say they are developing a spin-off series based on two animal characters from the show.

*Gilday does CineNova doc

Acclaimed documentary director Katherine Gilday has been signed to direct a one-hour biography special titled Cleopatra: Legend & Reality for Toronto’s CineNova.

Few other details were available at press time, except that the doc will be ready to air internationally in early 1999.

Gilday’s 1990 directorial debut, the feature-length The Famine Within, received widespread critical acclaim and audience attention.

*Electric does Second City’s 25th

Toronto’s Electric Entertainment is finishing up production on the Second City 25th Anniversary Special, which will air on cbc Nov. 1.

Celebrating the silver anniversary of the world-famous comedy troupe’s Toronto chapter, the majority of the show was taped on July 23 at the Second City Theatre on Blue Jay Way in Toronto.

The special features Jennifer Irwin, with appearances from Second City alumini including Martin Short, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Robin Duke, Patrick McKenna and Dave Foley.

The one-hour one-off is executive produced by Andrew Alexander of Second City and Paul Osborn of Electric Entertainment.

*1,000 shows for Studio 2

Currently in the early stages of its fifth season, tvontario’s nightly magazine show Studio 2 will be marking its 1,000th show on Oct. 20.

Hosted by Paula Todd and Gemini nominee Steve Paikin, as well as Viacom Canada head and former pc strategist Allan Gregg, Studio 2 has more than doubled its audience from its first season and now claims to reach an average of 100,000 viewers per minute, not counting those who pick up the signal in Quebec and parts of the u.s.

Executive produced by Doug Grant, the current affairs show features long- and short-format documentaries, in-studio performances by Canadian and international artists, in-depth Ontario political coverage, and regular weekly panels on sports, business, culture and provincial, national and foreign affairs.

*Bresson tour in T.O.

Cinematheque Ontario, in conjunction with the Bureau du Cinema, Ministere de Affaires Etrangeres and Le Service Culturel du Consulat General de France a Toronto, will launch a North American tour of films by France’s Robert Bresson, beginning Oct. 30 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The tour, which will also hit Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver – as well as 10 u.s. cities – will consist of 13 Bresson films and will feature several new prints courtesy of the Bureau du Cinema and Cinematheque Ontario. The tour will be accompanied by the first collection of writings in English on Bresson in several decades.

Edited by Cinemateque Ontario senior programmer James Quandt, the 600-page book features articles by Susan Sontag and Jean-Luc Godard among others.

Cinematheque Ontario is the year-round screening program of the Toronto International Film Festival, presenting more than 350 films a year in the ago’s Jackman Hall. Its fall season includes series on other French masters including Jean Cocteau and Godard as well as retrospectives on Israeli and Hungarian cinema and tributes to Canada’s Joyce Wieland and Soviet silent master Sergei Eisenstein.

*Netstar takes TFTSA trophy

Although it didn’t end up in a much-sought Alliance vs. Atlantis final, the third season of the Toronto Film & Television Softball Association wrapped up in September with Netstar Communications being crowned the 1998 league champs.

Netstar, whose team was stacked with jock types from tsn, defeated Alliance in the final game to be ranked tops among the 16 teams which competed in the league this year.

‘There’s always next year’ was a popular refrain among the defeated, but each team’s squad could look radically different next year if the industry continues its recent course of mergers, takeovers and acquisitions.

Defending champ Netstar, for example, could have an even larger staff base from which to pick its team if CanWest Global decides to return to the bidding table for control of the company. On the other hand, a unified Alliance Atlantis roster could prove unbeatable.

No word on how league co-commissioners Dave Cameron and Howard Porter (both of Atlantis) will lay out next year’s ground rules.

For the record, 1996 league champ Paragon Entertainment did not field a team this year.

*Back to the Garden of Eden

Actor and former star of Fireworks’ Robocop: The Series Richard Eden is back in his hometown of Toronto after spending some quality time in La La Land.

Having just completed the Kiefer Sutherland-directed Annex Entertainment feature Woman Wanted with Holly Hunter, Eden is finding himself in fairly high demand – taking on a major role in Chesler Perlmutter’s Parkland, the fifth instalment of its Nightworld mow series currently shooting in town.

Between acting gigs, Eden and screenwriter wife Shannon Hile have three feature scripts they’re aiming to have produced in Canada, including the Hile-penned Turning Page, which Eden calls ‘a great chick movie.’