For the first time in its recent history, well-traveled prodco Summerhill Entertainment is staying close to home, and shooting its newest series at a nearby bar. The Toronto company – best known for its Canadian Geographic Presents series on Discovery – begins production this month on 65 half-hour eps of Out of Bounds…with John Oakley. The sports magazine show will shoot five episodes every Sunday, starting Aug. 11, at local watering hole Montana’s and air on CanWest Global’s Xtreme Sports, Men TV and Fox Sportsworld Canada diginets starting in September.

‘We’re also hopeful it will make an appearance at some point on the main Global channel,’ says Lee Herberman, who exec produces along with Bill Johnston and Ron Lillie. Former Sportsworlder Jeff Blundell is producing, paying the bills with CanWest Global licence fees.

Billed as ‘irreverent and eclectic,’ radio veteran John Oakley and his guests will wrassle with such hot-button issues as the home-field advantage (fact or fiction?), beach volleyball (sport or marketing tool?) and the Alaskan Ididarod (extreme sport or cruelty to animals?).

Summerhill is also pitching a new ‘how to’ interior design show, and is currently shooting a half-hour demo for HGTV. Producer Cathy Hansen (Cityline) has tapped Toronto decorating guru Jacqueline Glass to host the would-be series Designing Life.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the prodco is partway through shooting 26 half-hour eps of Oui, Je Le Veux, a new French-language remount of its popular Weddings series. Production, explains Herberman, is based on this side of the provincial border to take advantage of tax credits, and drew funds from both Canal Vie and the LFP.

Each ep follows a different couple through the last three days before their wedding. Producer Susan Stranks is expected to wrap by the end of August and deliver to Canal Vie for a January 2003 airdate.

Other Summerhill irons currently in the fire include season three of Flower Power, 13 half-hours of globe-trotting botany now in post and due at HGTV in the fall; season five of Canadian Geographic Presents, nine one-hours for Discovery; and season two of its spin-off CG Kids, 13 half-hours to be seen on TVOntario, APTN and Knowledge Network.

Sturla shoots Christmas

Celebrated director Sturla Gunnarsson (Such a Long Journey) is currently at work in Toronto shooting The Man Who Saved Christmas for Alliance Atlantis and CBS. The $7-million MOW, penned by Debra Frank and Steve Hayes (Santa Who?), shoots through August and is due for delivery to the U.S. network by November, in time to air shortly after the American Thanksgiving. Randi Richmond produces, under exec producers Ed Gernon and Peter Sussman.

The two-hour MOW sees Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as toy magnate A.C. Gilbert who, in 1917, was forced to make munitions for the U.S. army. Local talent Kelly Rowan (Scorn) also stars.

Up Front on the eastern front

Following recent stops in Russia and Copenhagen, Up Front Entertainment has brought the shoot of its one-hour documentary The Last Princess to Toronto for August and September, and is expected to wrap in Greece by October. The $450,000 copro, helmed by Danish director Sonja Vesterhold (The Star Dreamer) and edited by Gemini-Award winner Deb Palloway (Crimes of Honour), is backed by the CTF and Telefilm Canada, with licence fees from History Television, Canal Vie and a bevy of broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, The Netherlands and Belgium.

It’s the story of Russian royal Olga Romanov, who fled to Europe and then Toronto after the Bolshevik revolution. Last Princess is due at History in January, and is expected to air some time in the spring, says producer Barbara Barde.

Up Front is also going back for a final three weeks of work on the one-hour doc Daughters of Afghanistan. Director Robin Benger (East Side Showdown) was in the war-torn country in April shooting the story of celebrated doctor and women’s advocate Sima Simar for CBC’s The Passionate Eye. The $270,000 doc is backed by Telefilm, the CTF and licence fees from CBC. It’s due in January and could also air on CNN and PBS, says Barde.

The Toronto prodco will also spend roughly $250,000 to make The Life and Times of Sarah McLachlan, with cash from the CTF, Telefilm and CBC. The TV doc will shadow the Canadian singer through September as she works on a new CD. It’s due to air on CBC in March.

Big Soul back on the rez

Big Soul Productions is taking another swing at repREZentin’ – in hopes that its ‘media empowerment project’ for native youth will be picked up as a series.

Producers Laura Milliken and Jennifer Podemski (The Rez) have sent New York director Randy Redroad (The Doe Boy) to Regina to shoot a half-hour drama with help from the local native community. The $100,000 project will film over five days, following three weeks of prep and rehearsals. Funding comes from the federal government via area MP Ralph Goodale.

This will be the third installment of repREZentin’, which has followed a rocky road to possible serieshood since APTN signed on for three stand-alone shorts. The network aired the pilot as two half-hours. Number two aired as a single half-hour, but was also repackaged as a half-hour doc for CBC. Number three will air as a drama on APTN sometime before Christmas.

Each episode of repREZentin’ enlists its crew and cast from a different native community and teaches acting and TV production skills to young locals, who work on the shoot with a team of mentors.

Also in production at the Toronto company are another 13 half-hours of The Seventh Generation. Season three of the Aboriginal youth series will wrap in October and air on APTN in January 2003, thanks to assorted in-kind sponsors and licence fees from CLT, SCN and Access. Podemski again produces with Milliken, and doubles as host, talking to youth and community leaders about native issues.