An ownership shuffle at Bell Globemedia will not pay off as hoped for producers because, according to the CRTC, the new boss of the media giant is the same, more or less, as the old boss.

Ian Tracey, as gangster Jimmy Reardon, on the set of Intelligence. The 13 x 60 crime drama is shooting in Vancouver for the coming season on CBC, exec produced by Chris Haddock (Da Vinci’s Inquest).

Le Secret de ma mère is the latest member of the million-dollar club, having pulled in a total of $1.7 million after four weeks on screens in Quebec, maintaining momentum against competition from major U.S. releases including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

Toronto’s Mongrel Media will make its first foray into the distribution of Canadian television properties with the CBC miniseries Human Cargo and the CTV MOW One Dead Indian, streeting on Aug. 22.

The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period July 21-27, 2006 and DVD sales in Canada for the period July 10-16, 2006.

Despite the abrupt cancellation of ABC’s The One, CBC programming boss Kirstine Layfield says the Canadian version of the singing competition, scheduled to air during the pubcaster’s 2006/07 season, may still happen.

Top 20 TV Programs tracks ratings for the top 20 television shows in Canada for the period July 24-30, 2006.

Gnosis Games was among the 28 companies that scored funding for various videogames, websites and mobile projects in the latest round of the Canada New Media Fund – which cut a cheque for development of Broken Saints: The Game.

Kigali, Rwanda: It’s more red tape than red carpet as the feature Shake Hands with the Devil shoots on location in this once-bloody African nation.
The $10-million production dramatizing the 100 days the 1994 Rwandan genocide – as seen through the eyes of retired Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire – first had to contend with 400,000 pounds of production gear being shipped from Canada, including eight cameras for two units, which got held up in customs for a month.

OIAF unveils lineup

The specially channels under the Alliance Atlantis umbrella have revealed their plans for the coming fall season, putting foul-mouthed cowboys, second-hand goaltenders and genealogists into primetime. Highlights of the lineup, all times Eastern, include:

The film and TV sector enjoyed higher revenue and profits in 2004, despite a drop in production dollars, according to numbers just released by Statistics Canada. The federal agency says a 10.6% drop in production from 2001 to 2004 – the most recent year for which figures were available – was offset by a healthy 50.5% revenue jump in sectors such as broadcasting and film distribution.