Oscar winner Paul Haggis will be at the Banff World Television Festival in June, taking part in the fest’s one-on-one ‘In Conversation With…’ series of interviews. The Canadian-born writer and director of Crash will talk about his new project, The Black Donnellys, now in development at NBC.

Sinking Ship Productions and marblemedia were among the six teams that scored production grants from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund last month, winning funds for their new copro This Is Emily Yeung.

Canadian films will be hard to find at Cannes this year, with only one Canuck short making the cut for the 59th annual film festival.

The animation by Toronto’s CORE Digital Pictures fared only slightly better with critics than the film itself when Disney’s The Wild opened to across-the-board bad reviews on April 21. Variety’s Justin Chang took a dim view of its ‘uninspired’ and ‘inconsistent’ character animation – going on to single out the mane of a lead character, a lion. Frank Scheck at The Hollywood Reporter, however, found the Toronto shop’s work ‘impressive’ and ‘more realistic than usual.’

Richard Stursberg is the executive vice-president of CBC Television.

We’re all well aware of the odds against a healthy life for a Canadian drama series. Just getting one to air is an impressive feat. And then, if the show is good enough and the broadcaster cares enough to invest some thought and resources behind its promotion, it may actually catch fire with viewers and get renewed.

Edmonton – Anaid Productions (Taking It Off  ) has been granted permission to film on an Alberta oil rig for its 13 x 30 docusoap The Rig, following a group of ‘riggers’ through life on and off their huge, sometimes dangerous, workplace.

Vancouver – Paramount Pictures is sending Mark Wahlberg and director Antoine Fuqua (King Arthur, Training Day) to North Vancouver in June for the seven-week shoot of The Shooter, an action drama with the Four Brothers star playing a master sniper who is lured out of retirement to prevent an assassination. Kate Mara (Brokeback Mountain) also stars, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Doom, Four Brothers) is the producer. The Shooter is booked at Lionsgate Studios through August and is slated for a 2007 release.

Vancouver – Timothy Hutton, Michael Clarke Duncan and pint-sized Rhiannon Leigh Wryn are in B.C. until the end of the June for the shoot of New Line Cinema’s Mimzy. New Line has yet to confirm the plot – although shooting has been underway at Lionsgate Studios for several weeks – but according to reports, the family adventure centers on a young tot, The Hulk’s Wryn, who can communicate with dolls. Bob Shaye (Book of Love) directs under producer Michael Phillips and exec producer Justis Greene (Final Destination 2).

Bruce McCulloch’s latest, the comic drama Comeback Season, makes its world debut at this month’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Ray Liotta stars as a married man who, kicked out after cheating on his wife, moves in with a high school football star, played by Shaun Sipos (The Grudge 2). McCulloch shot in Calgary, under producers Susan Cavan and Shirley Vercruysse. The Tribeca festival runs April 25 to May 7. ThinkFilm is distributing Comeback Season in Canada, with Myriad Pictures handling international sales.

* The Lifetime Television MOW Dream Me a Murder, by director Neil Fearnley (The Clinic), wrapped its three-week Calgary shoot on April 6. The film stars Jolene Blalock (Star Trek: Enterprise) and is skedded to air in June.

Cookie Jar Entertainment is hoping to gain ground in the market for boy-aimed action cartoons with its anime-flavored series Spider Riders, set to debut on Teletoon in May. The series is a copro between the Montreal toon house and the Yomiko advertising agency in Japan, which brought in Tokyo animation house Bee Train (Ghost in the Shell).