Bruiser Dolph Lundgren and director Sidney Furie are expected to wrap the four-week shoot of Direct Action – now underway in Hamilton, ON for GFT Entertainment – by the end of the month, and will soon hand the action feature over to editor Saul Pincus.

It is the second time GFT has paired Lundgren with the Toronto-born helmer, following last fall’s production of the low-budget punch-up Detention, also shot in Steeltown.

Avi Lerner (Prozac Nation) and GFT’s Gary Howsam produce the Greg Mellott script, which casts Lundgren as a legendary inner-city cop partnered with a young rookie, played by Polly Shannon (Trudeau, Sue Thomas F.B. Eye). Donald Burda (Absolon), Rothaford Gray (Death to Smoochy) and Alex Karzis (Chasing Cain) also star.

Curtis Peterson (The Limit) is DOP, Abbie Weinberg is art director and Shane Cardwell worked the stunts. Direct Action is expected in theatres sometime next year.

Radio active

The MOW Martha Inc. made much of the fact that recently indicted homemaking guru Martha Stewart hails from the small town of Nutley, NJ, so Decode Entertainment has scrapped the name Radio Free Nutley for its new teen project in favor of Radio Free Roscoe. U.S. teen broadcaster The N has ordered 26 half-hours from the busy Toronto prodco, and the five-month shoot is now underway. It is the largest commission yet from the Nickelodeon-owned broadcaster and will go to air in August.

The live-action series follows high schoolers who start up a pirate radio station in their suburban hometown, voicing their gripes and fears.

John Delmage produces, working with material by series co-creators Will and Doug McRobb. Comic Kenny Robinson has been signed to a recurring role.

Decode also signed deals with several French broadcasters last month, selling the tween adventure series King and new 2D toon Franny’s Feet to both France 5 and the French Teletoon, which also picked up a season of GirlStuff/BoyStuff.

Canal J’s preschool channel Ti-Ji bought the CGI series The Save-Ums, to air in September following the launch of a local online presence, and France 3 bought season two of The Zack Files, which also already airs on that country’s version of the Disney Channel.

Franny’s Feet, in production all this year with help from C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, is 13 half-hours for the preschool set about a young girl sent on magical journeys by shoes she finds in her grandfather’s repair shop. Channel 5 in the U.K. has also bought in, and the show is set to air here in December on Family Channel.

Decode principals Steven DeNure and Beth Stevenson exec produce, along with producers Elana Adair, and story editor Cathy Moss has turned out scripts with writers Susin Nielsen, Louise Moon, Karen Moonah, Betty Quan, Dan Williams and Lienne Sawatsky.

Aaron Linton and Ben Pinkney direct for C.O.R.E., and eight-year-old Phoebe McAuley stars as the voice of Franny. The show drew financing from The Harold Greenberg Fund, CTF LFP and the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund.

Dead, again

As if SARS and the West Nile Virus weren’t bad enough, Toronto’s infestation of zombies will continue into late August, thanks to shooting of the horror sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which gets underway just days after the scheduled wrap of Dawn of the Dead.

Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) reprises her previous role for debut director Alexander Witt. Dennis Chapman is production manager and Debbie Wilson is production coordinator.

Wild boys

LOCALS Michael Downing (Clean-Rite Cowboy) and Philip Svoboda hope their recent win at the Student Academy Awards will push their feature debut into production by early next year.

The pair, both students at the American Film Institute, were among nine winning teams at the 30th annual fete, held June 8 in L.A., and took the bronze prize for their 17-minute short Fine, about a middle-aged man who has doubts about his marriage. Svoboda produced and Downing directed, with music by Ron Sures (Blessed Stranger). Montrealer Ivan Grbovic, another AFI inmate, was DOP.

Svoboda was back in Toronto within days of the win, seeking distribs and possible copro support for their planned feature Wildlife, a ‘one night in the life’ of some hard-partying twentysomethings.

They hope to shoot in Toronto by late 2003 or early 2004, with a cast of young lesser-knowns, on a $1-million budget. The project scored $9,000 from The Harold Greenberg Fund last year, and will put in for Telefilm Canada cash this fall.