– Cinar Films, Telemagik and Baton Broadcasting have signed a joint venture to develop Cirque, a drama series of 60-minute episodes based on the Cirque du Soleil. The series is at preliminary stages of development with a goal to shoot the pilot in the summer of 1996. Plans are to develop 13 episodes. Working on the bible is writer John Boni. Cinar says it’s too early to announce producers credits.

– In Emmy nominations, Salter Street Films’ This Hour has 22 Minutes has been nominated for best popular arts show and Rhombus Media’s The Planets has been nominated for best performing arts show.

– Vancouver-based digital technology and interactive multimedia company Motion Works Group has agreed to acquire Vancouver’s Ferocious Fish Productions. The Grammy-nominated company composes original music, develops scripts, creates sound design and provides audio post for film, TV and new media.

– In the three-month period ending Sept. 30, British Columbia Film signed contracts totaling nearly $1.2 million to 15 b.c.-owned audiovisual projects with expenditures exceeding $6.6 million. Recently contracted projects include Don’t Make Me Laugh, a comedy produced and written by Ron Braun; Hungry Ghosts, a feature produced by Jonathan Goodwill; and What You Need, a romantic comedy produced by Kim Steer.

– CanWest Communications has nailed down Dec. 16 for the season premiere of Jake & The Kid, produced by Nelvana and Great North Productions. The probable slot, 7 p.m., is not yet confirmed. If it happens, the one-hour family drama on Global will be up against Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy on bbs and regional programming on cbc.

According to a CanWest spokesperson, Atlantis Communications’ Traders will debut late in January and Insight Productions’ Ready or Not in February.

– Toronto-based International Image will open International Image Servies LLC, a facility housing 10,000-square-feet of digital component technology to service tv distributors, in Santa Monica, California. Mike Ferkranus, cofounder of the company, has moved to l.a. and will be general manager of the u.s. operation. Phil Christie has also been relocated and has been promoted to operations manager. Dan Wannamaker will head up the technical services department.

– Quebec Cultural and Communications Minister Louise Beaudoin says she is considering funding a feasibility study for a cultural industries investment fund.

A spokesperson for the minister says the evaluation is ‘well advanced.’ She says the idea for the fund originated with the arts community, including sodec. At a press conference, the minister said the fund could be organized along the lines of labor-supported Fonds de solidarite. The proposed fund may also be accessed by individual artists, and be in the $30 million range.

– One of Quebec’s best known teleroman writers, Mia Riddez-Morisset, died last month at the age of 81.

Riddez-Morisset’s credits include Rue des Pignons, Les Filles d’Eve, Terre Humaine and Le Grand Remouds, her final teleroman broadcast in 1989.

She was the first woman to be named president of Union des artistes, the Quebec performers guild.

– The Montreal Film and TV Commission has received $100,000 for location promotion in the final quarter of 1995. Headed by film commissioner Andre Lafond, the service has been transferred from the city’s cultural department to economic development. The commission’s entire 1995 budget, $200,000, was cut at the beginning of this year reducing promotional efforts to nil. The inactivity may have an impact on location shoots next year, but Lafond says the damage is not irreversible.

– National Film Board acting head of the Ontario Centre Gerry Flahive is stepping down in the new year and Louise Lore, cbc executive producer of religious programs including Man Alive, will be taking over the position. Flahive will stay on with the nfb as a producer in the studio.

– Award-winning Quebec writer/broadcaster Janette Bertrand has moved from Radio-Quebec to Productions Point de Mire, a drama and documentary house headed by Lise Payette.

Bertrand and producer Andre Monette, who also joined Point de Mire, are part of an exodus at Radio-Quebec, where much of the educational network’s programming is being privatized.

At this month’s Canadian Association of Broadcasters conference in Ottawa, Bertrand was honored for career achievement. However, the prize was immediately returned after Industry Canada Minister John Manley raised a toast in her honor in the name of national unity.

– Jim Longo and Kevan Staples have formed a new music and audio post company called Rhythm Division, located at 314 Jarvis Street, Suite 102, Toronto.