Mix fast food, unions and Gil Bellows and you get Burger High, CTV’s next installment in its Signature Series, now shooting in Toronto. The dramatic two-hour MOW, coproduced by Accent Entertainment and CCI Entertainment, tells the fictional story of a teen girl trying to form a union at a local burger joint.

Bellows (Ally McBeal) stars as a conniving manager alongside local talent Alison Pill (The Pilot’s Wife, Life with Judy Garland). Kevin Tighe (Emergency, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?) also appears along with teen talents Sarah Gadon (La Femme Nikita) and John White (The Adventures of Shirley Holmes).

Vancouver native and festival darling Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn, The Real World) is behind the camera, working with executive producers Susan Cavan (Twitch City) and Nancy Chapelle (Virtual Mom) and producer Paul Brown (I Was a Rat).

Shooting ran July 2 to Aug. 2, and the $3.7-million production is expected to air on CTV in November. The project is banked by Cogeco and the CTF’s LFP. CCI will distribute in Canada; Gullane Entertainment will handle the foreign markets.

This will be the eighth Signature production since the series’ inception in 1997, and follows such titles as Tagged: The Jonathan Womback Story, Stolen Miracle and Genie winner Milgaard.

GFT on Detention

And it’s already back-to-school time for the cast and crew of Detention, an action thriller set in an inner-city high school. Toronto-based GFT Entertainment has set up shop in a Hamilton, ON-area secondary school for the four-week shoot that sees Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV, Universal Soldier) as a soldier-turned-teacher at war with local criminals. The $5-million film is due to be delivered by early spring 2003.

Canadian director Sidney J. Furie (Going Back, Iron Eagle 1, 2 and 3) is working with the script by John Sheppard (Higher Education, Flying) and again teams up with DOP Curtis Petersen (Going Back, The Circle). Gary Howsam produces along with coproducer Lewin Webb.

The story takes place during a Friday detention class. On screen with Lundgren are Alex Karzis (The Circle) and a host of teen talent, including Danielle Hampton and Chris Collins.

The film will be distributed by Alliance Atlantis in Canada and by Nu Image in the U.S.

Family planning

Expect to see at least a few awkward conversations on Family Secrets, a documentary-style show shooting 13 half-hour eps across southern Ontario this summer and fall for W Network. Each ep watches as a real family tries to deal with painful, difficult or unusual problems.

‘But it’s not a reveal show,’ says director/producer Maureen Judge of Toronto-based Makin’ Movies. ‘Some people know the secrets and some people don’t. The show’s about seeing how the family navigates around it.’

For example? Judge and crew were in Hamilton over the long weekend, sitting in on a family reunion at which one attendee came out as a male-to-female preoperative transsexual. Season one will also make stops in Pickering, Barrie, Thornhill and across Toronto. Other topics on the menu include death, pregnancy and prison time.

Judge (Unveiled: The Mother Daughter Relationship) will shoot the first three eps, working with DOP Harald Bachmann. Possible other directors include Catherine Annau (Just Watch Me) and Alan Zweig (Vinyl).

The LFP-funded series shoots from August to October. Delivery and airdates are January 2003.

Judge and her Makin’ Movies prodco, in association with TVOntario, are also preparing to shoot ‘Til Mortgage Do Us Part, an hour-long documentary about the highs and lows of home ownership. CTF funding has been secured and shooting is scheduled for spring 2003, again with Judge as producer/director and Bachmann as DOP.

Show and don’t tell

Meanwhile, reality programming braces itself for another kick in the neck as Canadian Film Centre graduate Kris Lefcoe (Can I Get a Witness?) gets underway with her feature debut The Show. The faux reality project, vaguely described as ‘a kind of cultural manipulation,’ will shoot for three to four weeks in Toronto starting in mid-September – thanks largely to a $200,000 cheque from the Canada Feature Film Fund. Lefcoe and her Severance Package Productions aim to raise another $200,000 to $300,000 between now and the wrap.

She will direct from her own 80-page script, and produce alongside executive producer Jeff Rogers (Hustler White). The Size of Watermelons writer Rob Stefaniuk sits in as line producer and Ray Dumas makes his feature debut as DOP. But the cast is a secret. ‘We’re trying to fool people into thinking something’s real that’s not,’ Lefcoe explains, ‘so promoting the cast might lessen our effectiveness.’

Solid Goldi

Watch for Canadian indie bands to get some much-needed screen time in the rock ‘n’ roll comedy Goldirocks, thanks to local writer/director Paula Tiberius. The filmmaker and part-time guitarist has written several rock bands into her first feature – including Intergalactic Rock Stars, Cheerleader, Blurtonia and, not surprisingly, her own outfit Sticky Rice.

It’s the story of how an oversexed singer locks horns with her newfound bandmates. Newcomer Sasha Ormond fronts as Goldi, and is backed up by Megan Dunlop (Parsley Days) and Laura Kim. Marcos Arriaga (Johnny Grey Eyes) is DOP.

Production got underway in Toronto’s west end on July 21 and runs to Aug. 14. Local music landmark Lee’s Palace also figures prominently.

Goldirocks scored $200,000 from the Canada Feature Film Fund and plans to match that with private investments and tax credits. Producer Lisa Hayes (Dike, My Grandma’s Boyfriend) secured television presales with Showcase Television, The Movie Network and Movie Central earlier this year and coproducer Tanya Henley says plans are afoot for both a soundtrack and a tour of the festival circuit, starting with Sundance.

‘It’s going to be tight,’ she says, pointing to the fest’s Oct. 11 deadline, ‘but we really want to try. Shooting on digital helps… [and] Telefilm is really great about promoting Canadian films on the international circuit.’

No word yet about a distributor or possible theatrical release.