Vancouver: Veteran service producer Colleen Nystedt of New City Productions in Vancouver is taking at least a year off from overseeing u.s. shows to do her own production.

Five independent features, developed in-house by New City, are on tap for this calendar year.

The first is The Last Stop, starring Adam Beach (Smoke Signals), German star Jurgen Prochnow and Callum Keith Rennie (Last Night). The story involves a murder mystery that grips guests stranded at a motel during a storm.

The 21-day shoot runs until April 28 and includes a week on Seymour Mountain in North Vancouver.

The features are financed through bank debt, tax credits and – for at least the first production – presales to Los Angeles-based New Beginnings Media, which will handle foreign sales. New City retains Canadian and u.s. rights.

Agency icm of l.a. is involved in packaging talent.

The second feature is called A Married Man and a Virgin, while the remaining features have not been disclosed.

In late 1997, New City produced the family sasquatch feature Big & Hairy, which had a limited opening in theaters and is being distributed by Red Sky Entertainment. Exhuming Mr. Rice, another family movie, this time with David Bowie in the lead, was produced last year and is being prepared for a Cannes debut.

Nystedt has hired distribution consultant Rob Straight, who formerly ran the now-defunct Everest Entertainment.

*Studio B makes it three

Years of development have finally paid off for service animation company Studio B Production in Vancouver. Three separate animated series are set to go into production and begin broadcasting next year.

Yvon of the Yukon will air on ytv beginning in January, D’Myna Leagues will go on ctv/Baton, also in January, and What About Mimi? will be broadcast on Teletoon in the fall of 2000.

‘Having our own shows get picked up has made all those trips to mip, Banff and natpe seem very worthwhile,’ says company partner Blair Peters.

Yvon is a half-hour for kids aged nine to 13 and follows the adventures of a French explorer who is awakened after 300 years of sleep. It’s described as an animated Northern Exposure meets The Simpsons.

D’Myna Leagues, a half-hour for kids aged six to 10, is inspired by stories by W.P. Kinsella and features a rowdy team of baseball-playing myna birds.

Mimi is described as a ‘kids’ Ally McBeal’ and follows the adventures of an energetic and ‘very’ honest redhead.

Since it was founded in 1988, Studio B has produced animation for Nelvana, Disney, Nickelodeon and Sony.

*CBC makes it three, too

These Arms of Mine has been picked up as a six-pack series by cbc and will be the third primetime series in production in Vancouver for the public broadcaster this summer.

Joining second-season series DaVinci’s Inquest and Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy, These Arms of Mine is produced by Phil Savath, whose earlier successes for cbc include White Lies, an mow recently nominated for an International Emmy.

According to Savath, the new series ‘is about the way we live and try to make sense of modern love and morality.’ It’s set in Vancouver.

Headlining the cast are Shauna MacDonald, Stuart Margolin and Babz Chula.

While the pilot was shot using cbc facilities, it has not yet been decided where the balance of the series will be produced.

*B.C. pride

The Leo Awards, gearing up for a big return this year, has 417 entries, including 89 separate productions vying for best program categories, says event producer/ writer Walter Daroshin.

Leading the awards by interest is the best documentary category with 119 entries. Drama series have generated 113 entries in categories such as performance and directing. Short dramatic films account for 56 entries and there are 52 entries in the best informational series category. Awards for local news, animation, student work and music videos will also be handed out.

Nominated productions must be controlled by b.c. residents, but b.c. residents who travel outside the province to do work for other productions can have that work nominated. The focus, says Daroshin, is on the work of b.c. residents.

Final nominations are to be announced April 19.

Meanwhile, Tony Papa is set to direct the telecast on vtv and broadcaster Rosemary Keevil has taken on the hosting duties for the ceremony May 15.

BC Tel is the presenting sponsor heading up 20 other sponsoring organizations including British Columbia Film, the B.C. Council of Film Unions, Fuji Film and the Royal Bank.

*For the record

A new cop-themed pilot called Dodge’s City, for Paramount, is in production until April 9.

Quarantine, an mow for abc, is in production until May 6. According to sources, the mow is about an outbreak on a plane.

*Passport to production

Filmmakers Beverley Reid and Peter Kellington of Mayne Island-based Coming Home Films are one-third of the way through a six-part documentary series about Canadian humanitarians.

The series, called Voyagers of the Heart, began with A Man Called Bob, about a Richmond high school principal who has dedicated his life to increasing the opportunities for young people to understand the developing world in places such as Vietnam and Guatemala. Bob aired on Knowledge Network in December.

The second installment, which is in post-production, is The Road to Bansi and focuses on 88-year-old nurse and theologian Jean Buchan, who works as a medical missionary in rural India.

Future episodes will feature Canadian humanitarians working in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Honduras and Bolivia.

*Doc watch

On March 25, Stolen Lives: Children in the Sex Trade debuted on vtv, with a ctv national air date to be announced later this year. The gritty one-hour documentary investigates Vancouver’s unseemly reputation as a tourist mecca for men who want to purchase sex with children.

Stolen Lives is written and directed by Shona Miko, with cinematography by her partner Steven Miko.