Vancouver: Infinity Films of Vancouver will evolve from a producer of variety and information programming to a creator of drama after a coproduction deal inked during a B.C. Film Commission-sponsored trade mission of local producers to Munich July 2-5.

The Cariboo Runaways, a $5-million family MOW, will be a 50:50 partnership with German producer NDF, says Pat O’Brien, a partner in Infinity with Shel Piercy and Dan Carriere. Production could begin in the spring.

The Infinity principals originally secured the rights to the story in 1993 from children’s writer Sandy Frances Duncan of Gabriola Island. But they didn’t make much headway with the production until the Sharing Stories conference in Edinburgh two years ago. There they pitched NDF and eventually signed a formal deal in Munich.

Set during the Cariboo Gold Rush in the 1860s, a brother and sister travel from Victoria to Barkerville to search for their father who has disappeared while looking to strike it rich. Their adventure includes murder and mystery and finding their father in jail wrongly accused.

O’Brien says the Germans were a natural choice as a coproduction partner. Germans were among the first international broadcasters to buy rights to Beachcombers and Danger Bay, two series that feature the B.C. landscape. ‘They love the scenery,’ says O’Brien.

As part of the coproduction deal, a German director is attached and the kids’ parents switch from being British to being German.

Movie Central is in discussions as the Canadian broadcaster and distributor IMF of Los Angeles will provide an advance.

Movie Central is also key to another dramatic production. The Moment is set to be a British coproduction and is inspired by the Infinity producers’ trip to Scotland while shooting the fishing series Dawn Wells’ Reel Adventures.

Bruce Greenwood is attached to play a Canadian television producer who falls for the only female fishing guide in Scotland. O’Brien is hoping for a fall 2002 start.

Other projects are doc in nature.

Infinity is in production with Love & Duty for History Television and WTN. The one-hour special, to air around Remembrance Day, is about the 640 Canadian women volunteers for the Red Cross in World War II. Calling themselves the Overseas Club, the women did everything from mundane hospital chores to frontline medical missions during wartime and until recently met annually for 55 years.

In development for fall shoots are The Guinea Pig Club, another WWII story for History, about Canadian and British pilots who suffered disfiguring injuries and became guinea pigs for pioneering plastic surgeons. A Bravo! biography will retell the life story of Bernard Slade, playwright of Same Time Next Year and Tribute.

Next spring, Infinity hopes to shoot Race of the Century for CTV. The investigative report looks into the four days surrounding sprinter Ben Johnson’s disgrace at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Woe be gone

Unhappy American film workers, blaming runaway production for their woes, have a new pot to bang with Pasadena, a primetime soap about rich folk in Pasadena, which is just baby steps from the California television production industry.

The Fox series is shooting 13 one hours in Vancouver, which has posed as Golden State towns on many occasions. But this time, struck by the irony of the series’ name, protectionist lobbyists are again turning up the anti-runaway heat in the L.A. media and the political backrooms.

As B.C. Film Commissioner Mark DesRochers says: ‘If they had called it Moose Jaw, no one would have cared.’

Meanwhile, Vancouver production volumes are beginning to creep higher in the post-SAG settlement era. Feature producers are calling and scripts are coming into the B.C. Film Commission’s offices, but few commitments are being made, partly because of the stockpile of product that was pushed through earlier. TV volumes are on par with prior years.

Oh Canada

A slower U.S. industry means a brighter spotlight on the domestic industry. Low-budget series Busted, for The Comedy Network, begins production of 13 half-hours Aug. 27. It’s the third series for executive producers Suzanne Berger and Kellie Benz. Vancouver actor Randy Schooley, who also starred in Skullduggery and The Unprofessionals, returns to a brand new series about suburban cops. Simon Hiyama, D. Neil Marks and Catherine Lough Haggquist also star.

Also for Comedy, satirists Bob Robertson and Linda Cullen (of Double Exposure fame) are in production with the new 13-part series Point Blank, which is a parody of television news magazine shows. Robertson and Cullen star as anchors Steele Drummond and Diane-Barbara Jane.

Dark matter

Tinseltown Cinema, again demonstrating its openness to local filmmakers, put Dark Water (Simpatico Pictures) on its marquee Aug. 17-24. The 35mm psychological drama is the story of a man who believes he is a serial killer of pedophiles. Ron Chartier, leading a crew of theater veterans, is the writer/director/producer. G. Patrick Currie (Queer As Folk), Kathleen Duborg (Last Wedding), Holly Ferguson (Nightman) and Ron Sauve (Reindeer Games) star.

Second wind

Selwyn Jacob in the Vancouver office of the National Film Board is overseeing production of The Lesra Martin Story, directed by Cheryl Foggo. Martin was immortalized in the Denzel Washington/Norman Jewison feature The Hurricane as an illiterate street kid from Brooklyn who lobbies to overturn the conviction of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter. Martin is now a lawyer working in Kamloops, B.C. The documentary is set for release next spring.

Surfer dude

Tantric Logic, a farcical short by writer and codirector Peter Nadler, will go before a pair of DV cameras by month’s end. In the story, a middle-aged computer geek searching the Web personals, meets a new-age ‘goddess’ and enters the world of Tantric sex. Nadler leads a cast including Allison Warnyca, Andy Thompson (Valparaiso) and Dean Marshall (Babylon 5).

Deadline notice

Post Modern Sound of Vancouver has joined Rainmaker Digital Pictures, British Columbia Film and the B.C. office of the Directors Guild of Canada in sponsoring the Kick Start program for 2002. Five emerging filmmakers get $12,000 in cash along with a post-production credit of $1,200 from Rainmaker and a $1,200 audio post-production credit from Post Modern. Application deadline is Sept. 5.