VANCOUVER: Jennifer Garner is back in B.C. and returned to work on Valentine’s Day with Juno, a romantic-comedy about a woman’s attempts to adopt a child.

Garner (Alias, Elektra) stars with Canucks Ellen Page (X-Men: The Last Stand, The Tracey Fragments), as a pregnant teen, and Michael Cera (Arrested Development).

Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) is directing the Coen Brothers-meet-Napoleon Dynamite script by journalist Diablo Cody, infamous for her 2006 memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper.

While the low-budget (less than US$10 million) Fox feature is based at Bridge Studios in Burnaby, Juno will be shot entirely on location in Vancouver. The release date is yet to be confirmed, but could be later this year.

Local service producer Brad Van Arragon (White Noise 2) is overseeing production for L.A.-based Mandate Pictures, Hard C Productions and John Malkovich’s Mister Mudd Productions.

Juno is Garner’s first trip back to Vancouver since production ended last year on the US$25-million Catch and Release, Sony’s box-office flop that earned just US$15.3 million in North American box office between its Jan. 26 opening and Feb. 19.