Genome – the musical

Vancouver – Production will wrap Dec. 2 in Vancouver and Squamish on The Score, a feature-length dramatic adaptation of the award-winning musical production by the Electric Company Theatre Society.

Told with humor, drama, music and dance, The Score follows a female geneticist in her race to isolate a cancer-causing gene. She must also face the possibility that she might carry the genetic disorder of Huntington’s disease.

Scheduled for delivery in June 2005, The Score will be broadcast next fall on CBC’s Opening Night. Producers also expect the finished production to be used as an educational and entertaining tool at genetic conferences and exhibitions.

The original musical was commissioned in 1999 by the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the Human Genome Organization and went on to win five Jessie Awards, given to local theater productions. Genome Canada is a supporter of the film adaptation.

Cast includes stage performers Jane Perry and Jonathon Young, Kevin McNulty (Dirty), Suleka Mathew (Touch of Pink) and JR Bourne (On the Corner).

Kim Collier of Electric Company directs, while Trish Dolman and Leah Mallen produce for Vancouver-based Screen Siren Pictures.

Brian Johnson (The Delicate Art of Parking) is the DOP, while Crystal Pite provides choreography and Peter Allen is the composer. Ian Edwards

CBC’s Green team

Vancouver – The CBC is venturing further into the reality TV genre with the green light on Code Green, a home improvement show produced by Vancouver-based Ric Beairsto of Laughing Mountain Communications and Daniel Leipnik of Vibrance Alive Entertainment.

Code Green, a two-part program set to air next spring, involves four Greater Vancouver homeowners competing to retrofit and renovate their homes to reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The homeowners who manage to reduce their consumption and emissions the most will win a $40,000 2005 Toyota Prius hybrid car.

Casting is underway and production is set for December.

Contestants will be provided with expert advice from consultants and $15,000 to be spent on new furnaces, lighting fixtures, appliances, insulation, windows and other means of reducing energy consumption and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

As part of a federal government initiative called the One Tonne Challenge (a program that asks every Canadian to reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne), each homeowner will also qualify for a grant worth as much as $3,000.

‘It’s going to be a really fun and practical way for us to see how each and every one of us can do our part to reduce energy consumption,’ says Beairsto. ‘Through Code Green, we hope to provide the public with information in a new and entertaining way that will show how they can reduce energy consumption at home, where 40% of our use of fossil fuels is consumed to support activities like heating, cooking and drying clothes.’ Ian Edwards

Knowledge Kicks Butt

Vancouver – In other reality TV news, Knowledge Network is prepping five half-hours called Kick Butt, which will follow five 20- to 34-year-old smokers as they attempt to quit smoking. With casting now underway, production is expected to go in January. Participants will be given digital cameras to document their struggles over five months. 

The $800,000 series is scheduled to air in May. Ian Edwards

Mindless Love Story for CHUM

Kelowna, BC – Ascent Films of Kelowna, BC recently wrapped Mindless Love, one of the CHUM-commissioned one-hour episodes for 13 Stories About Love.

Called a modern-day fairytale, the story follows a First Nations science whiz who uses a mysterious love potion to woo a girl. The experiment works, but not exactly as planned.

This ‘mind vs. heart’ and ‘humanity vs. science’ story is authentically native, but the themes are universal, say Kamloops writers Robert Goss and MJ Politis.

Jiri Bakala and Politis are the producers. David Lyle (Da Vinci’s Inquest), Sophie Merasty (Da Vinci’s Inquest), John Boncore (Deepwater), Doryan Milner and Stephan Fernandez star.

Production took place Oct. 19-27 in the B.C. communities of Kelowna, Vernon and Westbridge. Ian Edwards