VANCOUVER: Supermodel Kathy Ireland reprises her role as Santa’s daughter in the TV movie Twice Upon A Christmas: Rudolfa’s Revenge, an update of the Once Upon A Christmas MOW shot here in 2000.

In this go-round, Ireland’s amnesiac character Kristin Klaus seeks out her identity while her wicked sister Rudolfa (Mary Donnelly Haskell of 7th Heaven) tries to destroy Christmas by selling off pieces of the North Pole as a time-share gambling resort. Really.

John Dye (Touched By An Angel) plays the man who wants to marry Kristin on Christmas Day.

According to PAX, which commissioned the MOWs, Once Upon A Christmas delivered more than 2.5 million viewers, making it the highest rated film on the network.

Prince Edward (or Edward Wessex, depending on protocol) is executive producing through Ardent Productions with co-exec producers Erik Sterling, Jason Winters and writer Steve Berman. Local Deboragh Gabler of Legacy Filmworks is a coproducer and Tibor Takacs (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) directs.

Jolly jumpers

JON Voigt brings his Oscar-winning acting talents to the set of Baby Geniuses II: Super Babies, a sequel to the 1999 feature about talking newborns. Voigt stars as the evildoer who battles Kung Fu-fighting babies and Scott Baio costars. Production of the U.S. feature wraps Sept. 10. Bob Clark returns as director and Steven Paul as coproducer.

The original film featured Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Kim Cattrall, Peter MacNicol and Dom DeLuise.

Paper or plastic?

AMONG WTN’s new series this fall is The Shopping Bags, created and hosted by Anna Wallner and Kristina Matisic, former TV reporters from Global News when it was at CKVU in Vancouver. The 26 half-hour episodes of consumer advice are being coproduced with Vancouver’s Force Four Productions.

‘Women make 80% of shopping decisions in Canada,’ says Wallner. ‘We think they’re hungry for consumer information but don’t necessarily have time to do all the research. The Shopping Bags is going to be a one-stop shop for anyone looking to make educated purchasing decisions in today’s marketplace.’

That means tips, tricks and inside info to make viewers smart shoppers. Production started in May and continues until October.

Flash and Fire

VANCOUVER’S Bardel Animation has begun production on three 10-minute segments of the series Stories From the Seventh Fire (Storyteller Productions), inspired by Cree legends and the work of First Nations artist Norval Morrisseau.

Bardel will use a combination of 2D animation and Flash to produce the work that will broadcast quarterly on CBC, APTN, Vision, Access and SCN beginning next spring.

‘People think Flash and they think Internet,’ says director Ron Crown. ‘But we’ve demonstrated that it can be used to create broadcast-quality programming that is cost effective and can be produced in-house, without having to go overseas.’

Calgary’s AureyA Studio is contributing 3D animation to the series.

Animated transaction

IN June, Vancouver’s Atomic Cartoons inked a 50:50 deal with L.A.-based Phil Roman, one of the original producers for The Simpsons, to develop the series Atomic Betty. The concept – a nerdy girl saves the world – has been developed by Atomic Cartoons and Roman came aboard after having used the studio for service work on Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, which aired last year, and other projects.

The Atomic Betty partners are shopping the idea to Fox, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Kids WB. In a perfect world, the series would be in production by January. In the meantime, Atomic Cartoons is doing preproduction work on The Zeta Project (Warner Bros.) and Pelswick (Nelvana).

Labor of love

SINGING the Bones, a digital video feature shot on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver, will screen at the Montreal World Film Festival (Aug. 23 to Sept. 3). As writer/coproducer Gord Halloran’s directorial debut, Singing is about a mysterious pregnancy that affects three women and ‘creates the possibility of a miracle.’ It stars coproducer Caitlin Hicks, who wrote and toured with the original play of the same name. She plays the three principal roles of a pregnant mother, obstetrician and midwife.

Wise move

THE eighth season of Vancouver’s popular Cold Reading Series returned July 19 after the sudden death in June of actor/writer Keith Provost, a coproducer of the event that is a mainstay of the local independent scene.

‘Keith…made the actors and writers he worked with feel supported, and he was always generous with his warmth, kindness and humor,’ says coproducer and performer Nancy Baye, who will keep the series going.

The Cold Reading Series, founded by screenwriter Angus Fraser and actor Kathy Duborg at Vancouver’s ANZA Club, stages readings of three or four script excerpts. In 1997, one of the scripts was Wise Girls by local screenwriter John Meadows, who will assist Baye for the rest of the season that runs every Thursday night until at least the end of August.

Wise Girls recently wrapped principal photography in Halifax. Mira Sorvino and Mariah Carey star.

‘[The series is] proof that having your script read in front of a live audience raises the bar,’ says Meadows. ‘Writers can immediately see if their scene is working or if it is playing flat.’