As a young boy, Josh Miller fantasized about transporting one of his musical mentors like Beethoven or Mozart into the present, and although he couldn’t make it a reality for himself, he did find a way to make it happen for Oliver Cates, a young computer whiz in the series pilot The Genius.

Produced by Regina-based Minds Eye Pictures and Edmonton’s Anaid Productions, the $300,000 half-hour pilot was directed by Arvi Liimatainen and shot by dop Peter Wunstorf (Millennium) over five days at Edmonton’s Allarcom Studios. It will be ready in time for Evergreen Releasing to take it to mipcom.

And while Edmonton’s cfrn-tv licensed the show as a standalone to air this Christmas, Baton’s new Vancouver station, civt, has already ordered five more episodes for its family series stream, based solely on the creative.

The series, which will be called Mentors, is produced, like the pilot, by Minds Eye’s Miller and Anaid’s Margaret Mardirossian and executive produced by Minds Eye’s Kevin DeWalt.

In the series, fourteen-year-old Oliver and his friends bring scientists, artists, politicians, athletes and philosophers of the past into the present through a computer program Oliver created. The historical gang teaches the school chums things they could never learn from textbooks.

Miller wrote the pilot script after learning that, like himself, many people had someone from history they would like to invite to dinner and hang out with for awhile.

‘As the idea developed, it became a kid at a computer accidentally transporting somebody through time,’ says Miller.

In the pilot, Oliver, played by Chad Krowchuk (Jake and the Kid, Poltergeist: The Legacy), transports Albert Einstein from the year 1945 to Oliver’s present-day Edmonton basement.

As Einstein and Oliver try to come up with a way to send the scientist back home, the young boy learns about the importance of compassion over intellect and reconciles with his mother, whom he has always blamed for his parents’ divorce.

Playing the role of Oliver’s mother Anne is Edmonton actress Coralie Cairns (Willpower, Hollywood Babylon) and popping out of the past as the wild-haired scientist is Elliott Gould.

Although the cast consists of only three bodies, a fourth agreement had to be drawn up between the producers and the l.a. agents that hold the rights to the famous scientist’s name.

After doing extensive research on Einstein and working with casting directors to develop a list of people who they thought would be physically appropriate, it became clear to Miller that Gould was the best choice and fortunately, the actor was available.

The entire pilot takes place in Oliver’s basement

‘We are going for a realistic look,’ says Miller, ‘which we got in the basement along with some mood and atmosphere. We are also going for a sense of mystery and magic in this.’

Within the confines of the basement is a bank of computers and a green screen on which Oliver can dial up images from the past and look back in time.

Since they couldn’t shoot an existing computer program, the producers had an interface designed for the shoot, from scratch, which according to Miller presented them with quite a challenge.

The basement was wired for special effects by Studio Post. A couple of scenes have an electrical current running through them so that when Einstein appears the basement is inundated with billows of smoke, flying sparks and electrical surges.

‘Beyond a few technical hurdles it was a great production,’ says Miller. ‘We had prepared the script, we had the cast we wanted, and even the computer stuff went off smoothly.’

The producers plan to spend the next few months developing scripts for the series and shooting will begin in the spring.

Miller’s childhood fantasy started to become a reality after his script won second prize in the children’s category of the 1995 Alberta Screenwriting Competition, sponsored by cfrn.

In addition to cfrn’s involvement, The Genius was produced with financial assistance from the Independent Producers Fund, the ctcpf and the CFCN Production Fund.