Montreal: Ernest Webb says the whole idea behind Moose TV is to get the native people on television away from social issues. ‘It seems like when we’re concerned, everything has to be issue-obsessed,’ he says.

Ottawa – Sound Venture of Ottawa and Montreal’s Muse Entertainment have wrapped their MOW thriller Trace Evidence, ending three weeks of shooting on location around Ottawa. The project stars Amanda Detmer (What About Brian) as a scientist who discovers a possible cure for addiction – and someone wants her dead. (But who? The liquor companies? The lottery commission? Nintendo?)

Montreal – The idea sounded just creepy enough that Montreal producer Vivianne Morin of Cité-Amérique got involved with Bon Voyage. The three-part, Canada/U.K. copro miniseries – set to air on The Movie Network, Showcase, Super Écran and ITV late this year – is a taut $6.2-million thriller in which a couple and their two children are repeatedly tormented by a freakish couple while on a camping trek across France.

Montreal ­- The scripts for Macha and Friends, a new sitcom from Montreal’s Cirrus Productions, draw heavily from the cast’s own personal experiences.

For its next doc, Elevator Films (Stupidity, Escape to Canada) is pointing a lens at the strained relationship between Canada and its largest city, and has been staging tongue-in-cheek ‘Toronto Appreciation Days’ for the upcoming Let’s All Hate Toronto.

Vancouver – The first family of Marvel is returning to Vancouver, as Fantastic Four 2 begins shooting in August for Twentieth Century Fox, under director Tim Story, who also helmed the first installment. Most of the key players are said to be returning, including producers Bernd Eichinger (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), Ralph Winter (Lost), Marvel Comics CEO Avi Arad and screenwriter Mark Frost (Twin Peaks). Ioan Gruffudd (King Arthur), Michael Chiklis (The Shield), Chris Evans (Cellular) and Jessica Alba (Sin City) will all return as well. Details about the plot are still sketchy, but Internet rumors swirl about the possibility of an appearance by comic icon Silver Surfer.

Vancouver – U.S. prodcos Industry Entertainment and IDT Entertainment are shooting the first season of Masters of Science Fiction for ABC in Vancouver. The anthology series is a spinoff of the similar Masters of Horror series currently shooting its second season nearby for Showtime.

Vancouver – L.A. prodco New Regency Pictures (Date Movie) is currently in production on its new holiday-themed feature Deck the Halls, aka All Lit Up, in Vancouver. The Fox feature – starring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick as neighbors at odds over some garish Christmas decorating – began shooting at the end of May, with John Whitesell (Big Momma’s House 2) directing the Don Rhymer (The Honeymooners) script. Michael Costigan (Brokeback Mountain) is producing with exec Jeremiah Samuels of New Regency. The film will wrap in late July and should be ready for release this holiday season.

Vancouver – Director Uwe Boll is fed up with having his films slammed by critics and has issued an open challenge for five of his most vocal critics to fight him over the last two days of the Brightlight Pictures production of Postal, which will begin shooting in September in Vancouver, according to Boll spokesperson Bill Wanstrom.

Toronto – Teletoon and marblemedia have inked a development deal for a new series aimed at teens and young adults. The Dating Guy – now in the works with cowriters Jeremy Winkels (My Dad the Rock Star), Lienne Sawatsky (Delilah & Julius) and Daniel Williams (The Hamster Cage) – will follow the love life of a twentysomething guy based on marblemedia partner Mark Bishop.

Toronto – Rob Lowe will step into Kevin Bacon’s shoes next month when cameras roll on Stir of Echoes: The Dead Speak, a sequel to the 1999 thriller that starred Bacon as a man in touch with the dead. Lowe will reportedly play a similarly haunted solider who is just back from Iraq. Lionsgate Films is set to shoot next month in Toronto, aiming for a mid-2007 release. Ernie Barbarash (Cube Zero) directs from his own script.

* Inside the Box, a 26 x 30 game show for TVtropolis, is shooting at Lone Eagle Entertainment in Toronto