Production is underway on the hard-hitting drama Lucky Girl, an mow coproduced by Triptych Media and Alliance Atlantis Communications in association with ctv.

The fifth film showcased in ctv’s Signature Presentation series (following Milgaard, The Sheldon Kennedy Story, Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story and Blessed Stranger), Lucky Girl tells the story of a straight-a high-school student who becomes addicted to gambling. From scratch cards and poker to sports pools, gambling quickly takes over her life, and as her debt inevitably mounts, she is dragged into a downward spiral.

‘Lucky Girl ups the ante on the realities of teen gambling – the growing number of compulsive addicts, the influence of the Internet on teenagers’ access to gambling and the devastating effects on families,’ says co-executive producer/producer Louise Garfield (Hanging Garden).

Written by Genie-nominated John Frizzell (Dance Me Outside) and Graeme Manson (Cube), and directed by John Fawcett (Ginger Snaps), with Claire Welland as line producer, the film shoots Oct. 23 to Nov. 17 in Toronto. It stars such Canadians as Elisha Cuthbert (Popular Mechanics for Kids), Sherry Miller (Due South), Evan Sabba (Wild Geese) and Greg Ellwand (The Five Senses).

aac’s senior vp, television production Anne Marie La Traverse (Murder Most Likely) is also exec producing.

aac has worldwide distribution and merchandising rights. The mow will air on ctv in spring 2001.

Sound Venture, Muse coproduce exotic docusoap

ottawa-based Sound Venture Productions and Montreal’s Muse Entertainment have joined forces to coproduce Paradise Seekers, a series hybrid of Survivor, Blind Date and National Geographic Presents.

Described as an exotic adventure, the 13-part, half-hour docusoap plans to take a handful of beautiful ‘real people’ looking for romance to Club Med-style locations in the Caribbean, where friction of every kind is expected to erupt.

In each episode, two singles, who don’t know each other, are put together in one room, and a couple, either on the verge of marriage, the verge of divorce or out to renew their wedding vows, are put in another room. Cameras have total carte blanche while tensions mount and drama hopefully ensues, says coproducer Katherine Jeans. ‘It’s cheeky, but it’s done in good taste.’

Created by Muse’s Michael Sheppard, the series, budgeted at $1 million, is produced by Sound Venture’s Neil Bregman and Jeans, who is also set to direct along with Sun-Kyung Yi (Thai Girls). Sheppard and Muse’s Michael Prupas are exec producers.

Muse will mostly handle the financing and worldwide distribution.

The series will start airing on Outdoor Life Network in fall 2001.

Muse is also close to a deal with Travel u.s., and Travel u.k. has expressed interest, says Jeans.

The first open casting call took place in Toronto Nov. 6-7 (the show requires 52 cast members in total) and the series starts shooting Dec. 4 at Runaway Bay in Jamaica. The three following episodes will be shot in the Bahamas and the rest in various locales throughout the Caribbean. Principal photography wraps the last week in April 2001.

Pleasure Seekers is the first coproduction between the two companies. It is also Sound Venture’s first docusoap-style project, but not likely the last. ‘It’s what broadcasters are looking for,’ says Jeans.

*The Pretender returns to Toronto for TNT

Twentieth Century Fox has been in Toronto since Oct. 10 shooting the first two mows based on the canceled nbc series The Pretender.

The Pretender, broadcast for four years on nbc until it was canceled last season, was picked up by The Turner Network and transformed into two mows, shooting consecutively in Toronto – the same location in which the pilot was shot close to five years ago.

Budgeted at roughly us$3 million each, the two films are produced by Island Entertainment’s Michael Maschio.

Cocreators/cowriters Steve Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle are exec producing along with director Fred Keller.

The Pretender is based on the adventures of the main protagonist Jarod, who was taken from his family at the age of four and kept as a virtual prisoner at the ‘Centre,’ where he was brought up in a controlled, clinical environment designed to maximize his intellect. The Centre then exploited his genius by selling his abilities through the use of simulations. When Jarod finally escaped, he became The Pretender, using his unique abilities to assume any identity in order to protect the weak and abused and deliver his own form of emotional justice.

The first of the two films, shooting in Toronto Oct. 10 to mid-December, sees Jarod pretending to be an nsa agent in order to solve the case of an assassin, named the Chameleon.

Content of the second film is being held in close confidence as it is the ‘X Files-esque’ episode that unfolds the secrets behind the entire series.

The films feature seven of the cast members from the original series, including Michael T. Weiss, Andrea Parker and Patrick Bauchau.

*More 3D in Hogtown

Toronto-based 2D animation studio Elliot Animation has launched a 3D animation division, Krislin Elliot Digital.

Together, the two artist-owned studios, helmed by animator George Elliot and writer/director Brian Irving, house a staff of more than 50 2D and 3D/cgi animators. New names in the 3D division include Paul Hunt (ilm, Dragonheart, The Mask, Jumanji), Brian Foster (Walt Disney, Nelvana), Lon Molnar (The Cell, Jason x) and Peter Lepeniottis (Disney’s Dinosaurs, Toy Story 2).

Elliot Animation, which has serviced such series as Roswell and Elliot Moose, kicks off its new division with a series project from Universal Studios.

Sitting Ducks, a 26-episode, half-hour series, is described as a whimsical treatment of the characters created by the renowned Canadian expat artist Michael Bedard.

Based on Bedard’s book of the same name (featuring his signature character Bill the duck), the series, produced by London, Eng.-based Universal Programming and Sitting Ducks Production, follows the adventures of DuckTown’s favorite ‘residuck’ Bill, a reluctant non-conformist, and his quirky friends. *