The $20-million primetime series The Guard will take a three-month hiatus when production wraps on its eighth episode at the end of the month in Squamish, BC.

The 13 x 60 action-drama, a coproduction between DHX Media’s Halifax Film and Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures, went to camera in September and will form part of Global’s winter slate early next year, though no airdate has been set.

‘We felt that we needed a winter hiatus… our show is outdoors a lot,’ Charles Bishop, president of DHX Media’s Halifax film unit, tells Playback Daily, adding that the show will complete its final five eps, and ‘hopefully’ begin production on its second season in March.

The Guard, formerly called Search and Rescue, follows the unsung heroes of the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue team that serves the Pacific Northwest. It stars David James Elliott (JAG).

Bishop says recent storms in B.C. did not force production to shut down on the ‘ambitious’ project, which often shoots in and under water.

‘Our coproducers [Brightlight] are excellent. They assembled some of the best production crews for a complicated shoot,’ he says. Bishop coproduces with DHX chairman Michael Donovan, with whom he pitched the project to Global toppers Barbara Williams and Christine Shipton three years ago. Brightlight producers are Stephen Hegyes and Shawn Williamson.

Post-production on The Guard will be done at Vancouver’s Rainmaker.

Meanwhile, DHX Media has made a ‘strategic’ investment in Montreal-based gaming firm Tribal Nova, the company announced Thursday.

According to a release, DHX acquired a $2-million stake in Tribal Nova, an online developer and operator of gaming and VOD broadband channels for children aged three to 12. The company says the partnership will provide an additional platform for it to exploit its content library.

‘Our broadcaster customers are increasingly faced with the need to augment their terrestrial, cable and satellite presence with online programming, and we look forward to supporting them via this partnership,’ commented Donovan.