The success of Da Vinci’s Inquest, highlighted by a drama-series-leading 10 Gemini nominations, has the show’s creative team thinking big. Like big screen.

Show creator/executive producer/writer/director Chris Haddock has been hatching the idea for a Da Vinci’s feature with lead actor Nicholas Campbell and head writer Alan DiFiore since the Vancouver-shot crime series’ early days. Haddock expects that in addition to at least a couple more seasons on the small screen, the adventures of coroner Dominic Da Vinci, played by Gemini Award winner Campbell, will be coming soon to a multiplex near you. DiFiore expects the movie may go into production as early as next year.

Haddock says he was inspired to take on the theatrical venture by the prodding of Campbell, who has been passionate about making indie films for more than 20 years, and from Slawko Klymkiw, executive director, network programming at CBC, the series’ Canadian broadcaster. Haddock anticipates the feature production involvement of CBC in the model common in the U.K., where the BBC helps bring projects from TV to the big screen in exchange for the film’s first TV window. Haddock says Telefilm has also been encouraging.

Of course, it is a treacherous path getting a movie off the ground in this country, but Da Vinci’s has a leg up with a popular brand that could sell internationally, as the series is seen in nearly 80 countries, according to Haddock.

DiFiore says that new directions in the show’s fifth season, currently in production through Haddock Entertainment/Barna-Alper Productions and debuting Oct. 27, anticipate the big-screen crossover.

‘We’ve been making the series more film-like, working hard to take it a little bit further out of the normal television you see and move it more towards features,’ DiFiore says.

For the writers, this involves what DiFiore describes as adopting a Dickensian series of ongoing storylines, as opposed to making each episode self-contained. He explains that Haddock wanted to slowly build audience understanding of the characters before branching out in this direction. Now, instead of resolving each episode tidily, the writers have mapped out the entire season to ensure the various threads tie together throughout the course of the year’s 13 episodes.

To enhance this cinematic approach, the producers have brought on indie feature directors Keith Behrman (Flower & Garnet) and Lynne Stopkewich (Suspicious River) to add to a helming roster that already includes Stephen Surjik (Little Criminals), John Fawcett (Ginger Snaps) and Robert Cuffley (Turning Paige). Haddock says the feature’s director may come out of this talent pool. He has already approached Surjik about the possibility, and the latter has expressed interest.

Haddock envisions the movie as more sombre than its TV equivalent, both in tone and look.

‘We never get to shoot nights, because we get funded in the period of the year where we’re facing very short hours of night and curfews,’ he says. ‘I’ve always wanted to do night and rain. Also, we’d be able to take it in a psychologically dark and more disturbing place and develop it as a thriller.’