Kari Skogland is taking the leap from classic Canadian drama to international political thriller. The director – whose latest feature is the adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s novel The Stone Angel – will shoot her next movie, Fifty Dead Men Walking, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, this fall.

Erik Canuel has wrapped his latest, the dark comedy Cadavres, after a five-week shoot in Montreal with his Bon Cop, Bad Cop star Patrick Huard. The $5-million project stars Huard as a man whose life is drastically altered after his mother dies. Though emotionally traumatized, he connects with his sister and the two relive the innocence of their childhood. Meanwhile, corpses begin to collect in his basement, inexplicably.

The cameras of Insight Film Studios are on a roll this spring as three MOWs and one full-length feature – all thrillers – lens in B.C.’s lower mainland.

Prolific and controversial producer/director Uwe Boll (Postal, BloodRayne) is at it again, and, on June 13, will begin shooting his seventh video game film adaptation Far Cry in B.C. On board again are Brightlight Pictures producers Shawn Williamson and Dan Clarke.

The events surrounding the ill-treatment of an American hockey team in Canada is the subject of the MOW Sticks and Stones, now shooting for CTV through Cirrus Communications and Dream Street Pictures.

The handiwork of the BBC and other frontrunners from the U.K. will be in the spotlight when the Banff World Television Festival returns next month, June 10-13. The annual mountainside meet-up has more than the usual number of Brits on the schedule for this year, looking to connect Canadians and other producers with their cousins from the other side of the Atlantic.

A recap of the stats that shaped last year’s festival

This year’s Banff World Television Festival is so content-rich that narrowing down which sessions to attend might be harder to solve than a murder on CSI. Nonetheless, we’ve done our investigating, and below present seven must-see events. Too bad you can’t set your PVR, because some of the sessions overlap.

For most of television’s lifespan, programming – often costing an arm and a leg to produce – has been left to professional production companies guided by deep-pocketed broadcasters. But in the digital age, the likes of Current TV are trying to erode that model.

If the caliber of companies that have signed on to provide content or advertise on Joost.com is any indication, then the details of this outfit’s business model will be eagerly digested by media execs trekking to the Rockies this June.

One gets the impression in talking with renowned performer Colm Feore that only a tornado – which had ripped through his neighborhood in Stratford, ON the night before he spoke with Playback – could keep him in his living room for very long.

The creative minds from marblemedia will be on stage next month at Banff, accepting the TV festival’s Innovative Producer Award for their handiwork on titles including their kids series This is Daniel Cook, the comic opera Burnt Toast, and the award-winning mobisode collection Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction.