Longtime cable movie service producer Dufferin Gate has made the jump to series television with The Hardwood, a big-budget, high-profile drama for Viacom Productions skedded to premier on u.s. cable channel Showtime in June.

Production on 22 one-hour episodes gets underway March 15 in Toronto. Steve Wakefield is line producing for Dufferin Gate and Joe Cacaci is the exec producer. Also expected to exec produce is big-name writer/producer Tom Fontana (Oz, Homicide Life on The Street).

One official with Dufferin Gate confirmed that Fontana would be on the basketball series, but Wakefield would not comment on Fontana’s role.

Written by Sean Jablonski, The Hardwood follows 11 main characters from a fictitious professional basketball league through a season on and off the court. Judging by Fontana’s past work, The Hardwood should be stylish, edgy, and character-driven.

Casting is a work in progress and no Canadian broadcaster has been named. Dufferin Gate president Patrick Whitley says the series would not qualify as Cancon.

‘It’s our first series, we’re very excited about it, and I’m excited about it because of the people involved,’ says Whitley.

In other Dufferin Gate news, the company has opened an office in Vancouver and will be starting production in March on 22 one-hour episodes of a series called Beggars and Choosers for the u.k.’s Granada. Showtime movie The Rich Donato Story, starring Lou Diamond Phillips, is also skedded to go in March.

Whitley is confident that two or three other Showtime movies will shoot for the company in Vancouver this year. Rose Lam is heading up Dufferin Gate’s Vancouver operations.

*Must Be Santa at CBC

Production is underway in Toronto on what is being called ‘one of the biggest film projects ever undertaken by CBC Television.’

A Christmas-themed contemporary drama titled Must Be Santa is currently shooting at various locations in Toronto and in two studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre.

The made-for-tv movie is a cbc in-house production and the 30-day shoot is being helmed by director Brad Turner (Major Crime) and produced by Robert Sherrin.

Starring Arnold Pinnock (Naked City, The City), Deanna Milligan (Sliders, The X-Files) and Dabney Coleman (Slap Maxwell, Buffalo Bill), Must Be Santa finds a down-on-his-luck loser (Pinnock) being made a reluctant Santa.

Coleman plays Tuttle, the coo of the North Pole.

The f/x-heavy production will include the North Pole’s state-of-the-art, computer-driven control center, a complete amusement park and will include scenes of Santa flying to the Pole in a modern sleigh through a ‘cataclysmic storm.’

John Gajdecki of Gajdecki Visual Effects is handling the movie magic.

Must Be Santa is written by Douglas Bowie. Bert Dunk is the dop.

*CFC shorts in production

Six new projects from the Canadian Film Centre’s 1999 Short Dramatic Films program will be shot over the next two months in Toronto. The films will be produced in association with Viacom and the Harold Greenberg Fund.

This year’s crop of shorts includes the boxing drama Rabbit Punch, directed by Mary Lewis and produced by Susan Flanders and Lisa Wyndels.

Dead and Buried will be directed by Cassandra Nicolaou and produced by Sarah Campbell and Priti Mehta. The premise is that a terrible secret is about to resurface and destroy the relationship between a mother and son.

Deep Cut is Bill Phillips’ story of a mugging and the events thereafter. Phillips will also serve as director and Paula Devonshire is set to produce.

Exhuming Tyler is a drama about a mortician who finds enlightenment by talking to corpses. It will directed by cowriter Merlin Dervisevic and produced by Charlene Olson.

The Magnificent Anderson will be directed by Sheldon Serkin and produced by Sarah Watson. It is about a man named Anderson who uses the knowledge he has gained in a conflict resolution seminar to resolve a brawl.

Eva Meets Felix will be directed by cowriter Heidi Gerber and produced by Miranda dePencier. It is the story of a suicidal 13-year-old girl who finds a reason to go on after encountering a 14-year-old thief.

*Cinefranco sophomore year

Cinefranco, a film festival dedicated exclusively to francophone production, takes place in Toronto Feb. 25-28 at Alliance Cinemas Cumberland 4.

This is the second year for the festival.

‘Toronto’s reaction to our first year was overwhelmingly positive,’ says Cinefranco exec director and founder Marcelle Lean. ‘Our houses were filled to 73% capacity. Audiences were 46% anglophone, 40% francophone and 14% had another mother tongue.’

This year, Cinefranco will unspool 14 features and seven shorts, showcasing the works of directors from France, Canada and Belgium. Films by Alain Corneau and Philippe de Braco will be screened as will Un Air De Famille, the second feature from Cedric Klapisch.

All films will be screened with English subtitles.