Vancouver: Indicative of the migration of disillusioned Los Angelinos to the Lower Mainland, actress/singer/dancer Nia Peeples has taken up residency in West Vancouver, signed a business deal with Peace Arch Entertainment.

Peeples, whose stuntman husband is Saskatchewan-born, got her landed immigrant status last year (well before all the SAG strike fears, we should note), but only cleared her schedule enough to move in this month. She is best known for her work on the series Fame and most recently Walker, Texas Ranger.

At the Banff Television Festival, meanwhile, Peace Arch exec VP Kent Wingerak and Peeples pitched her one-hour dramedy Educating Annie, which Peeples created and has nurtured for four years. Peeples will star in the Northern Exposure-meets-Ally McBeal-inspired series about a high-powered L.A. attorney who flees the rolling blackouts of California and finds an odd sanctuary in B.C.’s Rocky Mountains.

‘We have been looking for a series to complement Big Sound and we think this is it,’ says Wingerak. Fully financed, the series should go to production by spring or summer 2002, he explains, adding that with Peeples’ TV profile, the series may attract some U.S. broadcaster attention.

‘On a personal level, I came for the quality of life,’ says Peeples, about her move north. ‘On a creative level, I like the crispness of the industry here and believe it’s the place to get this production done.’

She says her character Annie parallels her own life as someone blessed with a successful career who is also trying to find a balance.

And while she’s cleared her calendar to focus on Annie, she’s excited by the prospect of day parts on local productions and has met with producers, such as the creators of Da Vinci’s Inquest.

Will she strike if her colleagues in L.A. walk as early as next week? ‘I want to support the members,’ she says, ‘but it depends on the project.’

Fourth inning

Air Bud IV: 7th Inning Fetch went into production this month for Vancouver’s International Keystone Entertainment. The latest in the golden retriever-does-sports franchise takes Fido to the baseball diamond. Previously, the Air Bud canines shot hoops, intercepted the pigskin and tore up the soccer pitch.

Heaven sent

Busy service producer Deboragh Gabler of Vancouver’s Legacy Filmworks is back on set, but this time with her own production. The Miracle of the Cards, an MOW for PAX TV, tells the true story of a young cancer survivor who collected millions of get-well cards from around the world. Richard Thomas plays the doctor, Catherine Oxenberg (Dynasty) is the mom and Thomas Sangster has been imported from England to play the boy.

Meanwhile, Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) plays a reporter who doubts the boy’s remission is a miracle brought about by the avalanche of good wishes. Production wraps June 29.

And, in other production news, Vancouver tax shelter company Sentinel Hill has the divine touch (at least financially) for the four-hour CBS miniseries Talking to Heaven. Ted Danson, Mary Steenbergen and Queen Latifah star in the story based on the life of medium James Van Praagh, a man who came to terms with his ability to ‘speak to the dead’ to help solve murders. Work wrapped June 22.

Whack-y comedy

Los Angeles-based Newmarket Group, producers and distributors of the sleeper hit Memento, wrapped production on a new independent feature June 15 in Vancouver. Stark Raving Mad stars Seann William Scott (American Pie), Timm Sharp (Undeclared), Suzy Nakamura (Timecode) and Patrick Breen (Galaxy Quest) in a teen adventure comedy about two young men trying to avenge a murder.

The publicity materials say the feature combines the elements of classic heist films, rave music, Chinese mysticism and mob-style retribution.

Cowriters and codirectors are Drew Daywalt and Dave Schneider.

On pointe

Vancouver’s Mainframe Entertainment is computerizing the dancers of the New York City Ballet as part of the direct-to-video production Barbie in the Nutcracker – where the Mattel starlet takes the lead role in the holiday season spectacle The Nutcracker. Scoring the 76-minute production is the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Production is nearly complete, with delivery to Mattel mid-July in time for Christmas sales.

Type A personalities

A group of locals hopes a U.S. network will be impressed by their short film Blood, being done as a ‘pilot presentation.’

Codirector John Abu-Ulba, who has done two other short films, says the vampire-kung fu movie about warring brothers and their clans is too violent for Canadian broadcasters and hopes to take it to the likes of HBO. Three days of the privately financed production wrapped June 18 at North Vancouver’s Versatile Shipyards.

Les kudos

* The prestige of the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival reached all the way to Vancouver’s Lower Mainland. Atanarjuat – The Fast Runner won the best first feature film prize.

Shot on NTSC video, the feature was transferred to 35mm film by Vancouver’s Digital Film Group.

* Independent filmmaker Meghan Ciana is in post with her first feature Sons of Cohen and just wrapped production on her second short Josephine. Also incubating is her new website for Canadian independent filmmakers – her attempt ‘to build a national film community.’ Check it out at www.independentfilmcanada.com. *