The soon-to-be-opened and yet-to-be-named $11-million soundstage in Regina has not only secured tenancy with the majority of Saskatchewan’s production brass, it has also helped Minds Eye Pictures land a $35-million Canada/Germany coproduction with Munich-based H5G5 Media AG.

The biggest-budget project Minds Eye has ever handled (with the $22-million MythQuest running second), Ice Planet is a 22-hour science-fiction series originally brought to the Canadian producer at MIP-TV last year after H5B5 had completed a pilot for German broadcaster ProSieben. ‘We indicated to them that there was a brand new studio in Regina to be completed in April, which really [piqued] their interest,’ says Minds Eye president and CEO Kevin DeWalt.

A memorandum of understanding between the two companies securing the $35 million, 50-50 copro was signed Feb. 20 in Munich as part of the Team Canada 2002 Trade Mission to Russia and Germany, with Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert and the Bavarian Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in attendance.

‘The Team Canada trade mission gave us a date to work toward to get the deal in place,’ says DeWalt.

The effects-driven, live-action series will be shot in the fall at the new studio, temporarily referred to as The Canada Saskatchewan Soundstage, with CGI and all other visual effects to be handled out of Germany.

The series is described as taking place a million light years away. After a devastating attack on Earth, a small group of survivors manages to escape to a desolate, frozen planet. In order to survive, they learn that their new home holds the key to an extraordinary secret that could help save mankind.

In addition to ProSieben, the SciFi Channel in the U.K. is on board and DeWalt is currently in talks with Space: The Imagination Station in Canada. ‘But we didn’t need a Canadian broadcaster to make the deal,’ he says.

The project represents the first partnership between Minds Eye and H5G5, a public company involved in large-format IMAX, science and sci-fi production.

The new Regina studio, a partnership involving the Government of Saskatchewan, the Government of Canada, the City of Regina and the Saskatchewan film and video industry, is equipped with four soundstages, one of which is in the old CBC building and three of which total more than 30,475 square feet combined.

‘It’s absolutely massive and completely state-of-the-art, with production offices, hair, makeup, wardrobe…,’ says Suzanne Bell, SaskFilm’s director of programs, services and tax credits.

Confirmed tenants include: Minds Eye, Talking Dog, Postmaster, New Media Campus, Bird Song Communications, PS Production Services, SaskFilm, SAIST and a University of Regina new media office.

The studio officially opens March 29.

Meantime, Minds Eye is financing the second season of the Calgary-shot series MythQuest, a coproduction with Berlin-based TiMe Produktions.

-www.mindseyepictures.com