Vancouver: Voted one of the 50 Canadians to watch in 2003 by Macleans magazine in January, writer/producer Chris Haddock has sold the proposed series Street Boss to CBS.

The premise of the one-hour pilot, to be shot during pilot season this March if casting can be arranged to the network’s satisfaction, is about an FBI ‘handler’ who manages, hires, trains and keeps tabs on undercover agents – potentially internationally. Haddock’s agents at William Morris sold the idea, which is better set in the U.S. than Canada, says Haddock’s office.

Meanwhile, Haddock Entertainment’s CTV MOW Skid Road (aka Odd Squad) wraps five weeks of production Feb. 25 (with coproducer Sarrazin-Couture Entertainment of Toronto).

Cowritten by Haddock and Da Vinci’s Inquest cohort Alan DiFiore, Skid Road is inspired by real events: the beat cops who interact with and videotape drug addicts in Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, which evolved into the documentary Through a Blue Lens.

Bruce Greenwood (Thirteen Days, The Sweet Hereafter) stars, while Vancouver director Lynne Stopkewich (Kissed, Suspicious River) brings her dark oeuvre to the subject. Da Vinci’s DOP David Frazee makes the pictures.

Season six of Da Vinci’s Inquest is slated for production in June and a Da Vinci’s Inquest feature (made with Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions) could be in front of cameras by the fall.

Lastly, Haddock and company CEO Laura Lightbown have launched Left Coast Records & Design, a record label and artist management division. The soundtrack for Skid Road will be its first release.

Alien nation

Taking a cue from the edgy U.K. miniseries Traffik, the CBC, Howe Sound Films and partner Force Four Productions in Vancouver are producing the six-hour, $9-million miniseries Third World, a comprehensive take on Canada’s refugee problem told through multiple storylines.

Kate Nelligan, Nicholas Campbell, Leslie Hope and Cara Pifko are among the actors sharing more than 100 speaking roles in the epic.

Nelligan plays a failed politician whose embarrassingly racist comments about ‘foreigners’ prompts an angry prime minister to appoint her to the refugee review board. Her daughter, meanwhile, quits college to be an aid worker in war-torn Africa, strife that sends refugees to Canada. In other inter-related stories, Campbell plays an immigration lawyer who becomes involved in the case of a mysterious woman trying to cross into Canada.

Developed by husband-and-wife writing team Brian McKeown (The Beachcombers) and Linda Svendsen (The Diviners) in partnership with husband-and-wife producer team Hugh and Debra Beard (Jinnah On Crime), Third World is in production in Vancouver until March 7, when it packs up for South Africa for the remainder of the shoot, which wraps in May. Brad Turner (Major Crime) directs.

And by the way, the American version of Traffik, renamed Traffic, wrapped three months of production in Vancouver Feb. 19.

Chinese take-out

The primetime Chinese series Farewell to Vancouver wraps 11 weeks of production Feb. 27 and could air in the People’s Republic by May. Adapted from a novel by Chiang Liang, the $2-million, 20-episode Farewell tells the story of Chinese ex-patriates working and studying in Canada. Chao Lin, Chen Kwan, Jiang Wu and Lee Xiao Zhen star, while Zhao Baogang directs.

Caught on tape

Driven and under-funded local filmmakers are back at it with The Truth About Miranda (aka Love Conquers All), co-written, coproduced and directed by Mark Malone (Bulletproof Heart) of North Vancouver’s Wheelbarrow Films. The digital feature stars Caroleen Feeney (Denise Calls Up) and Bill Irwin (The Grinch Who Stole Christmas) in a story about a television crew that follows a successful female ad executive for a show called Woman at the Top. In the process, the camera crew captures her life as it falls apart and she falls in love again with an old flame.

The production, says Malone, will use the P+S Technik Mini 35 Digital adapter kit as a tool to produce the look and feel of 35mm film using a mini digital video camcorder. ‘We respond to stories shot on film the way we do for many reasons, but one important reason is that film cameras mimic the way the human eye works,’ says Malone. ‘This is one reason we feel a deeper sense of connection to things shot on film. Now we can do this on video.’

Other cast members include JR Bourne and Peter New. Three weeks of production wrap Feb. 6, with financing of the micro-budget provided by private equity investors.

Fa la la la la

Elf, New Line’s next Christmas movie, started with two weeks in New York in December but moved to Vancouver Jan. 6 for the remainder of its shoot, which wraps March 7. The story, about a boy who is raised by elves at the North Pole but eventually moves back to NYC to find his biological family, stars Will Ferrell (Zoolander), James Caan (Lathe of Heaven), Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous), Ed Asner (Lou Grant), Bob Newhart (Newhart) and Mary Steenburgen (Life as a House). Production in Vancouver takes place at Riverview, the Vancouver Film Studios and the Pacific National Exhibition.

Meanwhile, La La Wood is being coproduced and line produced by Vancouver’s Brightlight Pictures. The Martin Short feature, about his character Jiminy Glick, wraps almost six weeks of production Feb. 27. Vadim Jean (One More Kiss) directs, while Shawn Williamson oversees local location production.

Friends and killers

Anne Rule Presents is a new MOW franchise by USA Networks, beginning with The Stranger Beside Me, a television adaptation of Anne Rule’s bestseller about her friendship with serial killer Ted Bundy. Billy Campbell (Once and Again) and Barbara Hershey (The Portrait of a Lady) star.

Production wraps almost four weeks of work Feb. 10. Paul Shapiro (24) directs

Anne Rule Presents is a ‘centrepiece’ of USA’s Crime Fridays. The Seattle-based writer has written 16 bestsellers, though no other scripts are yet scheduled for Vancouver. Stranger airs March 21 in the U.S.

Three for one

Yaletown Entertainment, busy publicizing new deals and watching its stock price climb since November, has announced a three-picture deal with Vancouver-based Gold Star Productions and principals Jason Bourque and Ken Frith. The two-year agreement kicks off with the western horror/thriller Uninvited, which is scheduled for production this spring. Bourque (Maximum Surge, Wild Fire 7) will direct and Yaletown will distribute and own the features 100%. Uninvited star Dominika Wolski (Maximum Surge, Dark Angel) is also co-writer.

Shares of Yaletown traded at $0.40 a piece on the TSX Venture Exchange Jan. 22, with its year high of $0.55 per share and year low of $0.09 per share.

Drama queens

CHUM’s The New VI in Victoria has chosen four projects as part of its Drama Initiative that began a year ago with an open call for applicants. Phase one attracted 785 scripts from Vancouver Island writers, while phase two pared down a list of Vancouver Island producers who chose the final winners – which are:

* Cable Beach (writer Andrew Struthers, producer Nora Arajs): A fisheries officer uncovers a ‘tangle of truth and lies.’

* The Fat Chick (writer Helen Davies, producer Bruce Quayle): An obese teenage girl is sent to a treatment centre for kids with eating disorders.

* Johnny Tootall (writer Michael Giampa, producer Danielle Prohom Olson): A native war hero is driven to use his elite military skills to save his ancestral land from becoming a fishing resort.

* They Wait (writer Trevor Markwart, producer Andrew Koster): Two people, unexpectedly thrown together, discover some horrific, long-held secrets in Victoria’s Chinatown.

The New VI has committed $12 million over the first seven years of its licence to the independent production community on Vancouver Island. The Drama Initiative winners are expected to apply for CTF and Telefilm Canada funding with their broadcast letters and triggering funding from CHUM.