On July 3, bright pink Cadillacs and Hollywood stars, including Shannen Doherty (Mallrats) and Parker Posey (Best in Show), descended on Winnipeg to begin shooting The Battle of Mary Kay, an MOW for CBS about the coveted cosmetics queen, played by Shirley MacLaine (Salem Witch Trials). Principal Canadian actors include RH Thomson (Road to Avonlea), Barry Flatman (Rideau Hall) and Rachel Crawford (Traders),

Alliance Atlantis executive Ed Gernon makes his directorial debut on the AAC production, which satirizes the rivalry between Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics and Jinger Heath of BeautiControl Cosmetics, played by Posey. The MOW is coproduced with Howard Meltzer’s TurtleBack Productions of New York and AAC’s Ian McDougall. Patricia Resnick (Nine to Five) penned the script.

Original rolls on Atwood

When the Mary Kay shoot wraps July 28, its crew will move on to start principal photography on Winnipeg-based Original Pictures’ The Atwood Stories, coproduced with Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films. The $4-million limited series adapts six short stories from Canadian author Margaret Atwood as half-hour short movies for W Network, shooting one a week starting Sept. 3.

Lori Spring and Francine Zukerman secured the rights to the stories. Spring will write the script for two of the shorts, Zukerman will write one, and they will each direct an episode. Kim Todd, president of Original, is producing and is negotiating with Norma Bailey to direct as well. Other writers include Doug Taylor, David Young, Chris Philpott, Jason Sherman and Lynne Stopkewich, who will also direct. The production is funded through the EIP, LFP, Manitoba Film & Sound, CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund and the Rogers Cable Network Fund.

The first season (13 x 30) of Original’s children’s series Guinevere Jones for YTV went to air in May. In the most recent round of CTF funding, the second 13 half-hours of the Canada/Australia coproduction received both LFP and EIP, but had to turn down EIP’s $344,000 because international distributor Renown Pictures out of the U.K. could not come to terms with Telefilm’s requests for recoupment. Additional funding comes from YTV, the Corus Teen Drama Fund and Shaw Children’s Programming Initiative.

The $7.6-million series, starring 17-year-old Tamara Hope (What Girls Learn, The Sandy Bottom Orchestra) as Gwen, is coproduced with Elizabeth Stewart of Vancouver’s Ibis Entertainment and Crawford Productions of Melbourne, Australia, and brings a fantasy twist to high-school stories. Gwen leaves Canada to go to school in Australia where her mother was born, only to discover that she is the reincarnation of the heroine from the Knights of the Round Table stories. Canadian writers on the series include Elizabeth Stewart, Jesse McKeown, Rick Drew, Deb Peraya, Susan Neilsen, Therese Beaupre, Cathy Moss and John Meadows.

Original has also just delivered Leaving Metropolis, about a romance between a gay and a straight man and how their relationship impacts the women in their lives, to distributor Film Tonic in Montreal. The $1.4-million feature was coproduced with Paul Stiles and Ken Mead of realtime films in Edmonton and shot in Winnipeg.

Playwright Brad Fraser adapted the script from his play Poor Super Man. The cast includes Troy Ruptash (The West Wing), Lynda Boyd (Nights Below Station Street), Vincent Corazza (Due South), Cherilee Taylor (Blues Brothers 2000) and Winnipeg stage actor Thom Allison.

Special modified cameras shipped from Australia allowed Montreal DOP Daniel Vincelette to shoot on 35mm stock using a two-perf pull-down process, which captures twice the images, thus saving 50% on the stock. ‘I highly recommend it as a process for television because you save the stock and go right to video,’ says Todd. ‘But on a feature, with the cost of blowing it up and the special handling of the negative required, ultimately it’s not a huge savings.’

Leaving Metropolis received funding from the Canada Feature Film Fund, Manitoba Film & Sound, CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, with presales to Chum City, The Movie Network and Movie Central.

Calgary takes center stage in Tom Stone

Alberta Filmworks starts shooting season two of the CBC comedy drama Tom Stone on July 29 in Calgary. Shooting wraps Dec. 18 and new episodes will start airing Sunday nights at 8 p.m. on Oct. 27. Several unseen episodes will also air over the summer, which include a guest appearance by Jason Priestly.

The series stars Chris William Martin as Tom Stone, an ex-cop and ex-con recruited to work undercover with the RCMP, and Janet Kidder as Marina Di Luzio, a crime specialist from Toronto. Stuart Margolin, who plays Tom’s old friend Jack Welsh, also plans to direct several episodes. Jordy Randall will be producing with executive producers Tom Cox, Doug MacLeod and Andrew Wreggitt, the series’ creator.

In addition to highlighting the dynamics between characters Tom and Marina as well as featuring more of Jack, Randall says, ‘We’re going to continue to show our fourth character more, which is Calgary.’

Tom Stone is funded through the CBC, LFP, EIP, the Alberta Film Development Program and CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund.

Alberta Filmworks is also gearing up for Burn, an MOW for CTV coproduced with Toronto’s Tapestry Pictures that goes to camera Oct. 1. MacLeod and Randy Bradshaw will produce for Filmworks, with Heather Goldin and Mary Young Leckie producing for Tapestry.

The $4-million drama will shoot for four weeks outside of Calgary, with funding confirmed from LFP, EIP and the CFRN Fund, with Cogeco and CWIP pending. The original screenplay was penned by Shelly Eriksen, with Edmonton’s Sean O’Byrne currently working on a second draft. Director and cast are yet to be determined.

Burn tells the story of a man who, despite good intentions, gets caught up in a trial surrounding acts of environmental terrorism in northern Alberta oil communities.

Minds Eye shoots at Regina’s new soundstage

Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures is shooting Betrayed, an MOW for CBC coproduced with Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions, July 23 to Aug. 18 on location in southern Saskatchewan and at the new SaskCan Production Studios in Regina.

Anne Wheeler writes and directs the topical story of a small town suffering from an outbreak of severe water contamination.

The approximately $3-million production is funded through EIP, LFP, SaskFilm and the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund. Phyllis Platt produces. Co-exec producer Laszlo Barna anticipates a February airdate.

Minds Eye is also currently in Edmonton shooting season four of Mentors, a children’s series for The Family Channel coproduced with Edmonton prodco Anaid Productions, as well as season two of 2030CE, a YTV series coproduced with Winnipeg-based Buffalo Gal Pictures, shooting in Manitoba July 22 to Oct. 4.