Barely a financial quarter has passed since animation house Nelvana, struck by a $200-million writedown, saw its staff and production slate slashed by parent Corus Entertainment. But as it prepares for MIPTV at the end of the month, the beleaguered company is already talking recovery – heartily hawking 28 titles and its newfound knack for frugality.

‘It’s a big challenge to keep our budgets down and spend less than in the old days,’ says vp of production Jocelyn Hamilton. ‘But we’ve learned a lot from digital and translated that into the traditional animation world. So rather than having a whole assembly line where everyone has their own discipline… jobs and functions have been combined.’ Color is now done at the same time, and by the same person, as design, for example.

The Toronto company is developing six new in-house titles, totaling 78 hours, and will be on the make for partners in Cannes. Among them are Nova’s Ark, 26 half-hours of CG animation for the preschool set about a gaggle of robot animals, and Little Miss Spider and Her Sunny Patch Kids, 26 eps about a loveable arachnid and her buggy friends.

Both are based on books by David Kirk, whose Little Miss Spider book was recently fast tracked into a 40-minute special for Nickelodeon by Nelvana, with help from ace animator Gary Mundell (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), who came over from Square Soft last summer.

Nelvana is also developing 26 half hours each of What’s Bugging Becky?, about a girl with chronic hiccups; Oscar’s Atlas, a kind of flying geography lesson for preteens; and The Loudness of Sam, a reworking of the James Proimos book. The company has also begun work on an in-house series, from producer Tom McGillis and writer Jennifer Perch, called The Mall, about six tweens working their first jobs at the local shopping center.

Give war a chance

Howard Bernstein of DocuTainment Plus Productions is promising ‘three major revelations’ in his 2×60 doc about the Yom Kippur War – if only he can nail down two more broadcasters and shoot the darn thing between now and October, the 30th anniversary of the three-week shoot-out between Israel, Syria and Egypt.

Israel will admit, among other things, that it was dangerously close to losing the war after just three days and will explain how it turned the tide against its Arab neighbors, says Bernstein, who exec produces with Garry Blye.

The $500,000 project has carte blanche access to previously unseen footage from the war thanks, no doubt, to director and former Israeli fighter pilot Tal Imberman. DocuTainment is coproducing with Israel’s Channel 10, which kicked in $100,000. Bernstein hopes to raise the same or more from a Canuck and U.S. broadcaster and is pitching CBC, History and CanWest Global.

If the Canadian Television Fund comes through, director Chris Terry is slated to shoot Military Machines in June for Discovery Canada. The 7×60 series, coproduced with Dreamsmith Entertainment of New Brunswick, looks at the nuts and bolts of ancient and modern warfare and is expected to cost $2.8 million. DocuTainment is also prepping Walking the Bible, three one-hours for Vision TV and a signed but unnamed U.S. broadcaster. The $2-million doc is adapted from the bestselling travel book and will shoot this summer in the Mideast. DocuTainment has big hopes for the project, although it still lacks a director, and has already snapped up the rights to both of the book’s sequels.

Next month, the Toronto prodco brings its Say Yes & Marry Me! series to Life Network, and a doc about hockey great Carl Brewer is currently in production for CBC’s Life and Times.

Two guys and a girl

U.S.-based Killer Films (One Hour Photo) and Hart-Sharp Entertainment (Boys Don’t Cry) have pitched their tents on the Toronto lakefront for A Home at the End of the World, a feature to star hunk-of-the-moment Colin Farrell (Daredevil) and based on the novel by Michael Cunningham of The Hours fame. It’s about two boyhood friends sharing an apartment and a girlfriend after college. Freshman director Michael Mayer and DOP Enrique Chediak (The Good Girl) will shoot for five weeks, starting April 7, before moving on for a few days each in Phoenix and New York. Jim Powers (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) is line producer, Mike Shaw is production designer. No word yet on a distributor for the release.

Next stop, syndication

At last, all the excitement and drama of commuting will hit the little screen this summer with Train 48, a soap-ish drama now in the works at Protocol Entertainment for CanWest Global. Produced by Steve Levitan (Goosebumps), the 63×30 series is now casting for nine Toronto-area straphangers who, every weekday, cross paths on the commuter train – where they discuss the day’s headlines, personal problems and, apparently, have affairs. Each ep will be scripted, shot at Global’s Toronto studio, edited and aired daily, starting June 2.

Pilots galore

Pilot season continues this month, as director Steve Miner (Smallville, Texas Rangers) shoots Shadow Walkers in Toronto for the WB. The hour-long action pilot, produced by David Roessell (Inspector Gadget 2) and local production manager Greg Copeland (America’s Prince), concerns a family of archeologists who unleash a Pandora’s box of evil forces.

Meanwhile, over in Mississauga, director Ralph Hemecker (Witchblade), producer Vikki Williams (Witchblade) and production manager Michael Wray (yes, Witchblade) are shooting Chasing Alice, another hour for the WB ‘very loosely based’ on Alice in Wonderland.

Warner Brothers Television and producer David Latt are also in town, shooting 111 Gramercy Park for ABC, and Toronto’s Fireworks Entertainment will soon wrap Wild Card, a would-be one-hour drama for Lifetime Television in the U.S. Exec producers Lynn Marie Latham and Bernard Lechowick (That’s Life, The District) wrote the story, about a blackjack dealer turned insurance fraud investigator, and Steve Surjik (The X Files) directs.