Winnipeg’s Summit Films is currently in production on a six-part lifestyle series for Life Network titled Magnificent Obsessions, profiling people whose offbeat obsessions or hobbies play an integral role in their lives. Production began at the end of March.

According to producer Lorne MacPherson, stories include a group that has been chasing Bigfoot on the West Coast for 25 years; a professor obsessed with Count Dracula; and a meteorologist in Oklahoma determined to get inside a tornado.

‘These are what we class as magnificent stories in that there is nothing pathological about them and they will be inspiring to the audience,’ says MacPherson.

Erika MacPherson, Lorne’s daughter, is the creative producer on the show. Shereen Jerrett (The Woman Upstairs) is directing.

The budget for the six episodes is about $700,000, with funding from Life, the LFP, Manitoba Film & Sound and distributor Canamedia. MacPherson says they are still waiting on word from the EIP and that there has been a lot of interest in the series in the U.S., specifically from Oxygen.

Magnificent Obsessions will begin airing in the fall on Life.

Next up for MacPherson and Summit is an MOW for CTV called Mad Trapper, recounting the story of legendary fugitive Albert Johnson, which is currently in the late stages of development.

The film is a $5.5-million coproduction with Cite-Amerique in Montreal. MacPherson says the partners are still waiting for funding info to come back to them, but he is confident the project will begin shooting in northern Manitoba in the fall.

Jean Beaudin (Le Collectionneur) is attached to direct.

Cemeteries specials upcoming for Discovery

Fred Yackman of Saskatchewan’s Yackman Communications says big things are happening with Great Cemeteries of the World, a half-hour doc series he created with partner Shauna Fraser for Global’s Prime. The series, produced with Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures and Edmonton’s Souleado Entertainment, is spawning two one-hour documentaries for Discovery Travel in the U.S., focusing on two themes that run throughout the 26-episode series. The first theme is the top-10 secrets of cemeteries and the other deals with celebrity cemetery sites.

Yackman sees this as a great opportunity, as he and Fraser will retain their writers’ credits on the specials while Minds Eye and Souleado produce.

Production recently wrapped on the final five episodes of Great Cemeteries, so the focus is now on the specials.

Yackman admits he has been so busy with Great Cemeteries that he has had a difficult time getting his mind around other projects. There is one on the horizon, however, a lifestyle series in development with Bruce McKenna (Salt Water Moose) called Gray Wonders.

The series explores the ‘vibrancy of aging,’ says Yackman, and looks at elderly people getting the most out of life by running marathons, going back to school, climbing mountains and generally doing things not associated with aging.

Yackman says the series is in the early development stage and he and his partners will be looking to garner interest from the specialty channels.

Liechtenstein gets Royal treatment with CBC special

Winnipeg comedy troupe the Royal Liechtenstein Theatre Company will appear in its first nationally broadcast television special. Under the banner of Edward Fitz Productions, producers Rob Hardy and Cam Bennett are looking to begin production on the one-hour sketch comedy special in late May/early June.

Hardy says he has been a fan of the troupe for years. Even when he lived in Toronto, he would be sure to catch a Royal Liechtenstein show on trips back to Winnipeg. He sees this as an opportunity not only for himself and Bennett as producers, but the troupe as well.

‘It’s a special with pilot potential,’ says Hardy. ‘We consider it a pilot in that it is showing off the talents of the troupe.’

Vonnie Von Helmolt (Dracula: Pages from A Virgin’s Diary) and King of Kensington creator Perry Rosemond are co-executive producing the special. Rosemond, who is currently directing the Royal Canadian Air Farce for CBC, will also direct the Royal Liechtenstein project.

Hardy describes the special’s budget as ‘reasonable but not excessive.’ Funding has come from the Manitoba Film & Sound, tax credits and other partners.

Hardy and partners James Voelpel (Cinemascope) and Brendon Sawatzky (Inertia) recently launched a new Winnipeg prodco, Studio W Inc.