Production is underway on New Brunswick’s first television series, Daring & Grace (formerly Dick & Tracy), a project which sparked controversy among local producers last fall after receiving $260,000, reportedly 38% of Film nb’s budget for the year.

The $5.5-million Mobius Entertainment show started rolling in Moncton on Dec. 12 and wraps at the beginning of March. The 13 episodes are scheduled to air beginning this fall on cbc and ytv.

Daring & Grace is a half-hour high-tech teen adventure series about teenage basketball star Dick Daring who takes over his father’s detective agency after his dad disappears. When Dick Sr. mysteriously reappears on the Internet, he asks for his son’s help in running his detective agency.

Dick, in turn, recruits Tracy Grace, the head of the high school computer club, to help him unravel the elaborate computer systems of Daring Investigators. Together the teens solve cases of alien abduction, vampires and voodoo while trying to figure out who’s after Daring Sr.

More than 120 people are employed by the production, the majority of whom are locals and around 35 of which are trainees working under a mentor and learning their way around a set.

Directorial duties are shared between Scott Smith (Adventures of Shirley Holmes, Madison), John L’Ecuyer (Traders, DaVinci’s Inquest), Reid Dunlop (Traders), Rick Stevenson (Madison, Shirley Holmes) and John Bell (Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension, Psi Factor). Didier Maigret is the dop.

Toronto-based Microtainment Plus International will distribute the series in Canada while Chestnut Park, also in Toronto, will look after international distribution.

Playing the lead roles of the teenage sleuths are Kristin Booth (Total Recall, The Unicorn’s Secret) as Tracy, Jeremy Guilbaut (Millennium, Breaker High) as Dick Jr. and David Ferry (Once A Thief, Due South) as Dick Daring Sr.

Mark Shekter, of Microtainment is the series’ creator and writer and is executive producing with Garry Blye and Roman Bittman. Sari Friedland (Riverdale, Liberty Street) and Marilyn Belec are producing.

*Suffragist city

St. john’s-based Codlessco recently wrapped a five-day shoot of The Untold Story, a half-hour docudrama about the suffragist movement.

Directed by Greg Malone the docudrama covers the years from 1890 to 1920 and follows a group of Newfoundland women on their campaign for the right to vote.

The Untold Story, written and produced by Marian White, is 50% documentary, with archival photographs of women who led the cause, and 50% dramatized events.

dop David DeVolpi shot the story at the St. John’s courthouse, Colonial Building and the Masonic Temple.

The budget for the docudrama is $524,000, with funding from the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, Telefilm Canada, the ctf, the recently announced 40% provincial tax credit and the broadcasters, Vision tv and ntv.

Local actors Janis Spence (Gullages), Ruth Lawrence and Kay Anonsen are cast in the lead roles while Andy Jones and Malone make cameo appearances.

*Extraordinary Visitor opens Feb. 5

After an extensive tour of the festival circuit, feature Extraordinary Visitor from St. John’s-based Film East is hitting screens across Canada.

Producers Jennice Ripley, Paul Pope and writer/director John Doyle’s production about St. John the Baptist’s return to the city which bears his name will unspool on screens in St. John’s, Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and in two Toronto theaters on Feb. 5.

Film East has joint distribution with Cinema Esperanca for most of Canada and with K. Films Amerique for the Quebec market.

*Five-minute film fix

Shortworks kicks off a second year of training wannabe movie makers for film and video production Jan. 30 in Halifax.

A collaboration of the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, the Centre for Art Tapes, Flashfire Productions and cbc, the workshops provide intermediate training for those with some experience.

When the program wraps some trainees will have an opportunity to apply their new skills to one of four five-minute productions produced through the afc and the Centre for Art Tapes.

New to this year’s lineup is an extended cinematography workshop. Taking place over two weekends the course gives aspiring dops an opportunity to shoot something with a 16mm camera one week and then screen it the next. Toronto-based cinematographer Gerald Packer (Conquest, More Tears) will lead the workshop.

Also expanded for year two is a six-week screenwriting course taught by scriptwriter Georgina Lock.

Other Shortworks programs include costume, lighting and grip, location sound, scheduling and assistant camera.

Registration begins Jan. 25 at 5600 Sackville Street in Halifax.

*Varner leaves NSFDC

Anne-Marie Varner has vacated her post as ceo at the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation to return to her original roots of television production. She is now vp of corporate affairs at Great North Nova Scotia Productions.

The corporation’s director of finance Ann MacKenzie will be acting ceo until someone is found to fill the position.

Varner was at the nsfdc for two years.