Vancouver: The first documentary to ever post a profit for British Columbia Film is evolving into a series. The award-winning nature special Killer Whales of the Wild, shot in 1989 and bought by National Geographic, earned in the ‘mid five-figures’ for B.C. Film, says executive producer Michael Chechik.

In its new incarnation, the venture is called Champions of the Wild, a 13-part series for Discovery Channel. Chechik wants it clear, though, that Killer Whales was never a pilot for the new series.

Produced by Vancouver’s Omni Film Productions, Champions of the Wild focuses on Canadians dedicated to preserving wildlife – for example, a woman who is reintroducing the swift fox to the Canadian prairies.

Produced for about $160,000 per episode and currently before the cameras, the series will be delivered in March, says Chechik.

Financing is coming from all the usual Canadian suspects and Champions’ international distributor, Paris-based Amaya. Chechik’s Water Street Releasing also has a stake in the series and will distribute in North America.

Program producers are Christian Bruyere and Ian Herring.

Three’s a charm

Bionic pitch woman Lindsay Wagner will be in Vancouver in August doing triple duty. She stars in City of Fear, an mow produced by Wilshire Court for Showtime. The story chronicles a cholera epidemic. Meanwhile, Wagner will host the 30-minute special for bctv called A Christmas Wish, which features Powell River, b.c. singer Rob Carriere who has multiple sclerosis.

She will also flog cars in the next round of four B.C. Ford/Mercury Dealers ads.

Todd Ochsner, account director at ad agency Young & Rubicam, says Wagner does well with women buyers, who are harder to sell cars to than men. This is Wagner’s fourth year as the dealers’ spokesperson, a gig she also does for the Ford/ Mercury dealers of southern California.

Pop diva Paula Abdul stars in the Iterim mow In the Shadow of Evil for abc. Shooting between July 29 and Aug. 23, the project is the story of a woman following her rape.

Dad’s Week Off, a Movie Vista Productions mow for Showtime, is scheduled for production July 22 through Aug. 16. Starring Henry Winkler and Olivia D’Abo, the movie is about a computer salesman’s wacky vacation.

Do I have a bid?

Animator Gordon Stanfield of Vancouver’s Gordon Stanfield Animation knows the value of licence fees and has a business plan to tap the potential. At the end of June, the creator of Kleo The Misfit Unicorn attended Licencing ’96, a trade show in New York City dedicated to the capitalization of trade marks and merchandising.

He was there as the chief executive of a company founded to handle the sales and distribution of Kleo. The unnamed company – still a federally incorporated numbered company – is a 50-50 partnership between Stanfield and WIC Western International Communications (through Edmonton-based Allarcom). The sales office retains traditional broadcast distribution and will handle interactive, merchandising (such as toys) and home video sales for Kleo, the first animated series to be created, financed, produced and distributed in Vancouver.

Says Stanfield: ‘We’ve had no success in the past working with other distributors.’

The first 25 episodes will wrap production in April and the fantasy series will debut in Canada in September 1997. The show features the voices of Mickey Rooney and Saffron Henderson.

There are no plans yet to extend the service to other western Canadian animation projects on the go.

Local yokels

Listen, an independently financed thriller by Vancouver’s Rampage Entertainment, premiered in Vancouver July 20 and kicked off the Philadelphia International Film Festival July 17.

Made for $2 million by local director Gavin Wilding, Listen is about one woman’s obsessive love for another. Limited theatrical release will be managed this fall by Orion Pictures in the u.s., Alliance in Canada, and Devin International in all other foreign territories.

Next up for Rampage is Stag, a story to be shot in New York this fall about a stag party gone wrong.

The seven-part comedy series Get Serious: The Seven Deadly Sins will air on stations across Canada in August. Produced by u.tv (and its production arm Associated Film) and shot in l.a. in June, each episode will focus on a comedic exploration of one deadly sin.