A miniseries about the struggle for domination between two schoolyard gangs marks the first collaboration between writer-director Michael Mabbott (The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico) and the producers of Whizbang Films, which this week rolled cameras on The Yard for The Movie Network/Movie Central.

‘We had never seen a story on television that portrayed adult situations from the mouths of young, grade school-aged [kids],’ says Whizbang’s Frank Siracusa, who exec produces with Paul Gross, Mabbott, and co-creator David Eddie. ‘They’re not talking about the drug trade [directly], but they’re talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches being smuggled into a schoolyard,’ he explains.

The six-part half-hour mini, described as ‘provocatively humorous,’ is shooting in Toronto and Hamilton through Aug. 21 and follows 12-year-old Nick (Quintin Colantoni) and his crew trying to defend their turf against the ruthless Dos Santos brothers (played by Daniel Lupetina and Daryn Karp). It will debut in 2011.

Whizbang (Passchendaele) approached Movie Central’s Erica Benson with the idea and she put the project into development, according to Siracusa. ‘I couldn’t think of anyone else other than [MC]… I was stumped as to what programmer would find this appropriate programming. It’s not YTV,’ he tells Playback Daily.

Whizbang is also readying a fall shoot for its new feature film called Breakaway, which is the story of a young Punjabi man, billed as the next Sidney Crosby, who can’t actually get a chance to play hockey because of family commitments. Siracusa says comedian Russell Peters has already been cast in the project.

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Photo credit: Ken Woroner