While his child molestation trial plods on in California, the real Michael Jackson story is unfolding in Calgary.

Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures principals Chad Oakes and Mike Frislev are currently shooting an unauthorized MOW about the pop icon that went to camera in and around Calgary May 3 and is set to wrap May 28. Blueprint Entertainment, with offices in L.A. and Toronto, brought the project to Nomadic after American executive producer Joey Plager met Oakes and Frislev at the Banff Television Festival two years ago.

While a Michael Jackson pic could easily get caught up in the current trial, Oakes says the entire team working on the movie are fans and will not dwell on the most recent accusations against the controversial pop icon. The story covers Jackson’s life from his early childhood stardom, through the Thriller years and the Victory Tour right up to the present.

‘It’s unfair as creative producers for us to be judge and jury for Jackson. He’s got his own problems and woes and there’s no one here on the team who wants to agitate them more,’ said Oakes from the Calgary set doubling for the Gloved One’s Neverland Ranch. ‘It is important that we leave it up to the audience whether they believe he is innocent or guilty [of the allegations].’

The film, directed by Allan Moyle (New Waterford Girl) and written by Claudia Salter (Running Mates), will air simultaneously on The Movie Network and Movie Central in Canada and VH1 in the U.S. in the first week of August, before the trial is expected to begin.

Makeup and prosthetics will be used to help transform Flex Alexander (One on One), who stars as Jackson, through the pop star’s various physical transformations. Other performers include Eugene Clark (Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye), Peter Onorati (The Last Ride), Amy Sloan (Gothika) and Krista Rae (Connie and Carla). Along with Plager, Blueprint’s John Morayniss and Jon Katzman are also executive producers. The film received funding from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, CAVCO and the A-Channel Production Fund, and will be distributed globally through Oasis International.

The yet-to-be-titled biopic (at one point going under Family Values) comes on the heels of a string of productions that boosted Nomadic’s production volumes from $5.9 million in 2002 to $16.5 million in 2003. Last year, Nomadic productions included MOWs Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss and The Legend of Butch & Sundance, both produced with L.A.-based Once Upon a Time Films.

Oakes says Nomadic’s production volume jump is due in part to forming stronger relationships with L.A. producers, a move encouraged by Alberta Foundation for the Arts guidelines, which require foreign producers to partner with a local producer, as well as Nomadic’s reaction to struggles within the Canadian financing system.

‘We took a look at the changes coming down at the CTF and had a couple of projects that didn’t get funding. Then [Frislev] and I just looked at each other and said there’s got to be a better way of doing this, because we cannot always rely on the Canadian system,’ says Oakes. ‘The American producers are usually carrying the U.S. network deals, which are important for us.’

While last year was a big one for Nomadic, Oakes predicts this year will be even bigger. Projects in the works at the prodco include another two MOWs with Once Upon a Time, to be shot in Vancouver, and a $10-million U.K./Canada copro feature called The Ghost of Tom Mix.

-www.nomadicpictures.com