Montreal: Coscient Group is raising the stakes in its English-language drama division with a three-pack slate of tv movies commissioned by ctv, Citytv/chum and Global. The films are in the production financing phase and slated to shoot later this summer and fall.

The company is also deepening the resource base at its Toronto office and has hired writer/producer Karyn Nolan as director of development and business affairs, as well as established youth program producers Bernice Vanderlaan and Michael Klein, the latter two on an exclusive contract basis.

Nolan will oversee development and production of English-language drama. Vanderlaan (Hello Mrs. Cherrywinkle I & II) is responsible for several projects including Rockabye Bubble, a new preschool series licensed by ytv and presold to Access Network, scn and Knowledge Network. Klein (Nancy Drew, Jake and the Kid) will produce Miranda, a new Coscient teen drama series.

The three tv movies are coming in at the high end of the mow scale with combined budgets of $12 million. They are:

* The Stork Derby, ‘this year’s number one financing priority for chum,’ says Andre Picard, president of Coscient’s national production division, is a coproduction with Nolan and director Mario Azzopardi and Lifeboat Productions.

It’s the story of a wealthy Toronto bachelor who leaves a million-dollar heritage in 1930 to the woman who can produce the most babies in the 10 years following his death. The project has received funding from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund and is slated to shoot this August on a budget of $3.9 million. Nolan and Madeline Thompson are the screenwriters.

chum has picked up both English- and French-track tv rights in Canada.

* Dr. Lucille: The Story of Lucille Teasdale is the biographical chronicle of the late and heroic Canadian doctor who opens a medical mission in war-torn Africa. It’s budgeted at $4.6 million with commitments from ctv and Reseau tva and is a coproduction with Ballistic Pictures of Capetown, South Africa.

The film is slated to shoot later this fall on location in South Africa. Stratford, Ont.-based Rob Forsyth is the screenwriter.

* Task Force: Caviar is a majority Nova Scotia coproduction with writer/producer Wayne Grisby (Black Harbour, North of 60). It’s a $3.4-million action film commissioned by Global about a Montreal cop on the trail of smugglers and 22 tons of hashish, with Grisby writing and David McLeod producing.

According to Picard, if producers, regardless of where they’re based, can deliver the goods, they can do business with broadcasters anywhere in Canada, in French and/or English. ‘There are so many competing interests and the best stories and the best projects should win.’

In terms of pending ctf financing, Picard says he expects a reply from Telefilm Canada by early April, and then move on to the Licence Fee Program for a decision by the end of May.

Francine Allaire, vp development at Coscient, says the three tv movies ‘also have a universal appeal’ and will be exported by Motion International. Allaire says there’s early interest in Stork Derby in both the u.k. and Germany.

Additional financing comes from a distribution advance against worldwide rights from Motion and the combined (Quebec and federal) production tax credits, which make up about 22% of the budget.

‘Our next step for next year [2000/2001],’ Picard says, ‘is to come with a slate of series in production, at least two, and maybe some low-budget features and movies-of-the-week.’

Dramatic

development

Highlights on Coscient’s development slate include the tv movie Cherry Ducks and the family feature Mariposa Azul, with writer David Adams Richards (Small Gifts) associated with the latter. The broadcaster is ctv.

Cherry Ducks is a hard-hitting drama for City about a Jewish lawyer who defends a neo-Nazi skinhead accused of murdering a Pakistani. Toronto playwright and actor David Gow is scripting.

Coscient (in the form of production subsidiary sda) has been a leading supplier of primetime drama to Radio-Canada over many years, most recently with Scoop and Omerta.

Picard says Coscient’s development approach is to tie appealing, Canadian-rooted stories, both fictional and literary based, to strong creative teams in a way that results in challenging or innovative properties.

Opened with PMK

The company opened on English production nearly three years ago with the successful launch of Popular Mechanics for Kids, syndicated in the u.s. by Hearst Entertainment and licensed in Canada by Global Television. Season three (66 half-hours) of pmk is slated to go into production shortly.

Coscient also produces the ytv tween mag To the m@x, and is in financing on the new tvontario ‘let’s pretend’ preschool series called Rockabye Bubble.

Allaire says Coscient is in development on 12 English-language drama projects including tv movies, feature films, a pilot and five tv drama series.

Since 1997, more than two dozen Coscient titles have been licensed in English Canada.