Winnipeg: ytv has licensed Credo Entertainment’s 13-part action adventure series SpyFly. The project is a Canada-u.k. coproduction with Winklemania out of Oxford, England. itv has taken broadcast rights for the u.k. Combining live action with some cgi, the kids series centres around a boy who’s dream of being a superhero becomes reality when he is turned into a fly. Andrew Koster is the exec producer on the series. Directors and cast have not been attached and a production date will be set once final financing is secured.

wtn has signed on for Head Over Wheels, a 13-half-hour documentary series on the relationship between women and cars. Koster is the exec producer on the series, which will focus on real women telling personal stories about themselves and their cars. Shereen Jerrett is writing and directing. Production is slated to begin this summer, pending a successful application to the Canadian Television Fund.

In development with cbc’s Nature of Things is Biomimicry, a three-part doc series to be produced by Koster, David Springbett of Vancouver’s Asterisk Films and Paul Laing of Toronto-based Icon Media.

The project looks at a subset of scientists called Biomimics who all have different specialties of study but are united in their examination of how nature works in order to learn how to adapt human processes such as agriculture and manufacturing to make them less wasteful and in line with sustainable development practices.

* Minds Eye update

Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures will begin pre-production on Ties That Bind in late May/early June. The film, written by Christopher Murphy, centres on a retired psychologist who blames himself for his son’s suicide and is then drawn into the case of a sexually abused and intellectually gifted teen who has a murderous secret. The shoot is scheduled for Regina and Moosejaw. Director and cast have not been attached.

The second film to be produced out of Minds Eye’s new action-thriller genre division is titled Murder Seen, written by Marilyn Webber. The film will be shot in Saskatoon in early April. A director and cast have not been finalized.

Without a Word is slated for production late April in Winnipeg. The feature film stars Patrick Swayze as a retired dancer who returns to the stage in a tribute performance for his former teacher. Swayze’s wife, Lisa Niemi will direct.

Principal photography began mid-March on Viva Las Nowhere, a production of l.a.-based Franchise Films and Minds Eye. The feature stars Daniel Stern (Very Bad Things, Home Alone), James Caan (Mickey Blue Eyes, The Godfather), Patricia Richardson (Ulee’s Gold, Home Improvement) and Lacey Kohl (How the Grinch Stole Christmas), and is shooting just outside Calgary.

Viva Las Nowhere tells the tale of Frank Harvey Jacob, whose dreams of being a country western songwriter come to life.

On the television side, an international coproduction deal has been signed with Merlin Films Group of Ireland, Verite Films and Minds Eye to produce four episodes of the Incredible Story Studio series which is licensed to ytv in Canada, Disney Channel in the u.k., France and Germany, Nickleodeon in Australia and Discovery Channel in the u.s.

Minds Eye is in development for its series Myth Quest. The program is a CGI-based time travel adventure series with an educational bent destined for pbs. Production is slated for summer 2000.

* I.C.E. Productions’ hefty slate for APTN

Three-year-old upstart I.C.E. Productions, helmed by Jeremy Torrie and Ron Missyabit of Winnipeg, has a slew of new projects licensed to aptn, including a documentary on the actual making of aptn, which documents the process of becoming a national aboriginal network.

Among the other projects ICE is working on for aptn is Powwow Trail, a $1.1 million, 13-part hour-long series looking at the origin of Powwow, as well as the legends and meanings behind the dances. A North-America-wide shoot begins May 15 with Torrie directing. ICE has purchased a 1080i hdtv camera and Powwow will be the company’s first project shot on hdtv.

The variety program The Show, best described as an aboriginal David Letterman/Jay Leno type show, will be hosted by aboriginal stand-up comedian Don Burnstick. The 26 one-hour episodes will be shot live-to-tape next fall. The budget is $1 million (with aptn kicking in some production services) and Torrie is looking at other broadcast windows in Canada. Post is underway on Warrior Spirits for aptn, a four-part documentary series examining traditional and contemporary definitions of the warrior spirit.

Medicine Wheel, a half-hour magazine show on aboriginal issues has been renewed by aptn for a second season and expanded from 13 to 26 episodes.

Just entering production is the $230,000 13-part series Cool Jobs, which profiles aboriginal role models with unique and interesting careers.

ICE is also in production on a documentary, Opening the Jar, for Warner Music and to be broadcast on MuchMusic. The $75,000 film is a behind-the-scenes look at the up-and-coming rock band Jar which has signed a multi-million dollar record deal with Warner.

* Manitoba Film & Sound launches low budget feature program

Manitoba Film and Sound has announced a new low-budget feature film fund aimed at developing the talent pool in the province and overcoming the stumbling blocks filmmakers face when trying to finance their first several films.

The program will be awarded through a juried competition that will provide $100,000 in its first year towards developing low-budget (under $500,000) scripts. In the initial pilot year, $150,000 is available to take one project into production, explains Manitoba Film and Sound ceo Carole Vivier, and then in future years the production side of the fund will be increased as projects are completed through the development program.

The low-budget development fund offers financing of up to $25,000 per project in the form of a recoupable loan. Equity investment is capped at $150,000 for projects with budgets of up to $300,000. Financing of up to $250,000 is available for projects budgeted between $300,000 and $500,000.

‘The program is designed to find those gems, those wonderful scripts,’ explains Vivier. ‘It is meant to help filmmakers break into features and also help them move up and develop further.’

While projects budgeted between $300,000 and $500,000 require a distributor or broadcaster to apply for production funding, projects with budgets lower than $300,000 do not require a market trigger to apply. However, all projects must demonstrate that the balance of the funding has been secured. Inter-provincial coproductions are eligible provided the writer and director are Manitoba residents and the project is shot in the province. An independent jury will select projects based on script excellence, risk taking and unique cinematic voice.

Only dramatic features intended for theatrical release can apply and the deadlines are May 1, 2000 and November 1, 2000.

* SaskFILM initiative spawns two dramas

Two dramas -Applejack and Victims have recently wrapped production in Saskatchewan as part of the SaskFilm Winter Initiative, a competition that awards equity investment of $50,000 to two dramatic projects and is designed to provide professional development for above-the-line personnel working in drama.

The romantic comedy Applejack is written by Trevor Cuningham, directed by Marc Simard and produced by Krista Schultz of Ambush Films. Applejack is a half-hour tale about 30-year-old Jack, who takes a job as a punching bag/body target in a woman’s self-defence class and falls in love with one of the married participants.

The project was shot on widescreen digital beta in Regina. Minds Eye’s Rob King was mentor on the project. The plan is to complete post and put the film on the festival circuit.

The second drama, Victims, is written by Robin Clark, directed by Leif Storm and produced by Leslea Mair.

* NFB celebrates 25th with new studio

The National Film Board’s Prairie Studio marked its 25th anniversary in Winnipeg on March 16 with the official opening of its new 8,500-square-foot production facility. The new studio houses four soundproof editing suites; an Avid Film Composer; Silicon Graphics and high-end Macintosh computers; an animation studio with traditional and 2D/3D cgi capabilities; an archival storage facility and screening room; as well as production offices with networking capabilities.

Since opening its doors in 1974, the Prairie Studio has produced more than 100 films that have won more than 150 awards, as well as three Academy Award nominations.

The Prairie Studio has completed more than 15 documentary, animated and children’s films this production cycle and another 15 projects are in the works, including John Paskievich’s documentary Borderland, which looks at the effects of exile on the adult children of Ukrainian refuges who came to Canada after World War II; and the animated films Strange Invaders, Cordell Barker’s nine-minute story of a couple who find out that their newly arrived child is actually from outer space; Louise, a character study of an elderly Belgian Canadian woman living in Manitoba, directed by Anita Lebeau; and Derek Cummings’ Mind Me Good Now, in which two young children in Guyana are capatured by a sorceress. The development slate at the Prairie Studio includes Jeff McKay’s The Influent and the Effluent, on our relationship to sewage, Charles Konowal’s Brothers, an examination of the unexplored world of brothers, and L-One, a behind-the-scenes account of the clash between drug companies and regulation, co-directed by Elise Swerhone and Erna Buffie, and coproduced by Merit Jenson-Carr.

* Midcan enters webcasting arena

Midcanada Production Services of Winnipeg has launched a video/audio Internet streaming service allowing for any multi-media content to be streamed live on the web from Midcan’s studios.

MidCan’s Kevin Dunn explains that MidCan will act as a ‘distribution channel to the internet.’ If a producer wants to put segments of programs on its company website, MidCan will code the film and host the content on the Midcan server. The client’s website will then feature an icon that surfers can click on.

This transparently activates the MidCan server and the web viewer will immediately see quick-time video images of the film.

MidCan will also help film, tv and commercial producers develop the look of their site and design web pages.

In other news at MidCan, Winnipeg music veteran Wally Larsson has joined the company to market and produce customized soundtracks for film, tv and jingles. Although MidCan has done audio post for the past two years, the company now has a full-time producer and arranger on board.

Winnipeg Film Group tours South America

the Winnipeg Film Group has announced its first-ever South America touring program, which will see a retrospective of films produced by wfg members screen in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The project, spearheaded by Winnipeg Film Group distribution coordinator Marlene James, Roben Guzman of the University of Buenos Aires, and Vancouver producer Judy Robertson, is designed to bring innovative Canadian cinema to South American audiences who rarely have the opportunity to see Canadian film.

The first of three programs of wfg films will screen at The National Museum of Fine Arts and the Leopoldo Lugones Theatre in Buenos Aires beginning in June, followed by an additional two retrospectives slated for next fall.

The screenings will include a cross-section of Guy Maddin’s work, including Tales From the Gimli Hospital and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs; Noam Gonick’s documentary Waiting for Twilight; as well as work from Jeff Erbach, Paul Suderman, Kathyrin Martin, Kevin Schjerning and Craig Cornell. Canada Council for the Arts is a sponsor of the retrospective.