Toronto: Temple Street Entertainment has optioned Paul Quarrington’s novel Galveston, and put him to work on the screenplay to be produced by Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier. It’s the story of three people who camp out on a Caribbean island about to be rocked by a killer hurricane and Schneeberg hopes that, when the time comes, the picture will play well on both sides of the border, similar to the well-received adaptation of Quarrington’s Whale Music in 1994.

‘There’s an arthouse-y element but there is this Hollywood-style hurricane,’ he says. ‘It has some of the darker subtext that you get in Canadian fiction and in film, but Paul is a really funny guy and his treatment is also very funny.’

The Toronto prodco is also prepping to shoot a second season of its tween sitcom Darcy’s Wild Life. The first run debuts next month on Family Channel and Granada International just bought the international rights at MIPTV. The prodco is also hoping CTF will write a cheque for its Bay Street comedy Billable Hours, written by Adam Till and actor Fab Filippo (Lives of the Saints) for Showcase.

‘We were a little nervous going in, because we know Fab as an actor not a writer, but I gotta tell you, he and Adam are hitting home runs with these scripts,’ says Schneeberg. Showcase has just asked for another three scripts, to go with the original three. ‘We’ve got our fingers crossed,’ he says.