Burn: The Robert Wraight Story
Broadcaster: CTV
Production companies: Tapestry Pictures (now Screen Door), Alberta Filmworks
Producers: Doug MacLeod, Randy Bradshaw, Heather Haldane, Mary Young Leckie
Writers: Shelley Eriksen, Sean O’Byrne
Director: Stefan Scaini
Cast: Jonathan Scarfe, Alan Scarfe, Kristin Booth, Karl Pruner, Sara Botsford
Plot: Based on the true events of Christian fundamentalist preacher turned environmentalist Wiebo Ludwig (Alan Scarfe) and his complicated relationship with his neighbor Robert Wraight (Jonathan Scarfe), whose testimony led to a conviction of Ludwig in 2000 for bombing and vandalizing Alberta oil wells.

‘Robert Wraight in the ‘real story’ was both a friend to Wiebo Ludwig, and saw him as surrogate father,’ says Screen Door producer Mary Young Leckie from the Toronto set of MOW Shades of Black, the CTV bio of Conrad Black. She adds that having real-life father and son Alan and Jonathan Scarfe in the roles provides another layer of honesty and intensity to their portrayal. ‘Jonathan and Alan are obviously friends, and yet both know the tensions and strains of any father-son relationship.’

Except the Dying
Broadcaster: CHUM Television
Production companies: Shaftesbury Films, Original Pictures
Producers: Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie, Laura Harbin, Virginia Rankin
Writers: Janet MacLean, Jean Greig, Cal Coons
Director: Michael DeCarlo
Cast: Peter Outerbridge, Keeley Hawes, Colm Meaney, Flora Montgomery
Plot: Set in turn-of-the-century Victorian Toronto, Except the Dying is the first adap in a series based on the best-selling Murdoch Mystery novels by Canuck mystery writer Maureen Jennings. Outerbridge (ReGenesis, Trudeau) stars as forward-thinking detective William Murdoch, who has to solve the apparent murder of a housemaid.

According to Original president and executive producer Kim Todd, turning modern-day Winnipeg into 1890s Toronto wasn’t much of a stretch. ‘Winnipeg has lots of very old buildings and whole blocks of old ‘downtown’ areas,’ she told Playback. ‘But the films have a very contemporary feel, and with Michael DeCarlo (Hemingway vs. Callaghan) directing, we wanted to [achieve] that combination – all of the interest in the period and a feeling of a contemporary story in its pacing and intrigue.’ Shot back-to-back with another Murdoch Mystery, Poor Tom is Cold, the combined budget for the two films was around $7 million.

The Last Casino
Broadcasters: The Movie Network, Movie Central
Production company: Cité-Amérique
Producers: Greg Dummett, Madeleine Henrie
Writer: Steven Westren
Director: Pierre Gill
Cast: Charles Martin Smith, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Albert Chung
Plot: Dark caper about a math professor with a gambling problem (played by Smith) who teaches three gifted students to count cards. Plot thickens when he claims the stake horse is demanding half a million dollars in seven days, forcing the students to help him hit all the casinos they can to honor the marker in time.

Director Pierre Gill is well-known for his cinematography on projects such as Hitler: The Rise of Evil (for which he won both American Society of Cinematographers and CSC awards), Lost and Delirious and Joan of Arc, but he moved to the director’s chair for The Last Casino, which won the Bronze Medal Award for TV movie/drama special at the New York Festivals International Television Awards in January. Since then, Gill has been back behind the camera shooting and posting Maurice Richard, a feature biopic centered on the Montreal Canadiens hockey legend and climaxing with the 1955 ‘Richard riot.’ It’s scheduled for a Nov. 25 release in Quebec.

The Life
Broadcaster: CTV
Production companies: Haddock Entertainment, Odd Man Out Films, Sarrazin-Couture Entertainment
Producers: Chris Haddock, Lynn Barr, Laura Lightbown, Arvi Liimatainen, Pierre Sarrazin
Writers: Chris Haddock, Alan Di Fiore
Director: Lynne Stopkewich
Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Nicholas Campbell, Katharine Isabelle
Plot: Greenwood plays a police officer who shoots documentary-style footage of drug-addicted residents in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It was inspired by the National Film Board doc Through a Blue Lens, about the bond that develops between a group of Vancouver cops and the addicts they chronicle over a couple of years.

Despite airing last year during the Labour Day weekend opposite four sitcoms on Global and CBC’s coverage of the World Cup hockey game between Russia and Slovakia, The Life drew 775,000 (2+) viewers to its two-hour block, beating the sitcoms and previous Canadian-made MOWs that also aired on Sundays, according to CTV. Lead actor Bruce Greenwood, in a Canada AM interview, had earlier accused the caster of choosing to ‘bury this movie on a holiday weekend where it’s not going to be seen.’

Tripping The Wire: A Stephen Tree Mystery
Broadcaster: CTV
Production company: Galafilm Productions
Producers: Arnie Gelbart, Francine Allaire,
Anne Marie La Traverse
Writers: Peter Smith, Greg Spottiswood
Director: Stephen Surjik
Cast: Clark Johnson, Brendan Fletcher, Alisen Down, Micheline Lanctôt
Plot: Detective Sergeant Stephen Tree (Johnson) has his hands full dealing with his many demons when a petty criminal (Fletcher) threatens to let the nasty skeletons out of his closet. Further complications arise when the murder of a soldier who exposed a deplorable act in Bosnia leads to a military investigation that hits close to home.

Clark Johnson honed his acting chops with Tripping before spending the summer in T.O. to helm the big-budget thriller The Sentinel with Michael Douglas, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger and Kiefer Sutherland. In that film, set for a spring release through Fox, Douglas is a special agent who uncovers a plot to kill the president, but is framed when he’s blackmailed over a supposed affair with First Lady Basinger.

PLAYBACK PREDICTS THE WINNER:
The Life: MD, MH, MR
Except the Dying: DD
The Last Casino: SD
Tripping the Wire: MHS
Playback staff includes Mark Dillon, Sean Davidson, Michelle Hille, Marcus Robinson, Dustin Dinoff and Matthew Hays (MHS)