Production has started in the Canadian arctic on the HD climate change documentary The Polar Explorer from Polar Cap Productions for the CBC and iChannel specialty channel.

The project will see producer, writer and director Mark Terry capture footage for a 60-minute film as he and his camera crew cross the Northwest Passage on an icebreaker as part of the international ArcticNet scientific expedition.

Terry was reached Monday at Latitude 76 between Ellesmere Island and Greenland, on day seven of his shoot.

“Now that we know we have some of the most spectacular and exclusive footage ever shot, I am sure we have a strong enough film for a theatrical release,” he reported.

The HD shoot from October 8 to 24 will include underwater camera work with technology to allow shots in the ocean’s frigid depths, and aerial footage courtesy of an on-board helicopter.

Terry and his team managed to capture aerial footage of a giant iceberg, technically classified as an ‘ice island,’ with the only HD footage taken of the natural phenomenon to date now headed to the edit room.

Besides the CBC and iChannel, Terry has also sold the film to the Documentary Channel in New Zealand.

And he’s eyeing a possible Discovery Channel U.S. sale as talks with programmer Dan Russell continue.

Damir Chytil, the director of photography, collaborated with Terry on an earlier climate change documentary, The Antarctica Challege: a Global Warning.

Terry expects the U.S.-based Discovery Channel will take The Polar Explorer and The Antarctica Challege: A Global Warning as a package.

Jeffrey Steiner, Dianne Schwalm and Mark Romoff of New Franchise Media are executive producing The Polar Explorer.

Steiner and his team at New Franchise Media, based in Toronto, last month unveiled a film and TV slate deal with popular British novelist Jeffrey Archer.

The Polar Explorer is set for a spring 2011 airdate.