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).

Toronto – Breakthrough Animation boss Kevin Gillis is bullish, and even a little bit surprised, about the prospects of his new gay comedy, Buddy’s, after a round of meetings at MIPTV.

Montreal – Circle of Friends, an MOW coproduced by Montreal’s Incendo Productions, wraps on May 10 after four weeks in Montreal. The thriller stars Julie Benz (Satan’s School for Girls, Jawbreaker) as a woman who returns home to investigate the mysterious deaths of her childhood friends.

Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin spent time in her hometown of Winnipeg recently shooting Blue State, the first feature from U.S. writer/director Marshall Lewy, which wrapped in late-April after a 20-day shoot.

Vancouver – Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah – two of the assassins from Quentin Tarantino’s popular Kill Bill films – have reunited for the crime drama Vice, shooting until May 4.

Vancouver – Director Douglas Buck has wrapped the thriller remake Sisters after a four-week stay in Vancouver. The picture is a redo of the 1973 Brian De Palma movie and stars Chloë Sevigny as a reporter investigating the suspiciously close relationship between another young woman and her psychiatrist, played by French import Lou Doillon and Stephen Rea, respectively.

The recent ruling by the CRTC exempting mobile television services from regulation promises to provide plenty of fodder for the panels and addresses at the Playback Mobile Forum, May 11 at the York Event Theatre in Toronto.