Imagex Productions
The work of Wayne Johnston has provided a wealth of material for Imagex productions, and the company is currently in development on a one-hour, 13-part series based on The Divine Ryans that Zimmer will be taking to Banff this year. Also in development is a two-part mini-series called Les Deux Charles, which is adapted from Alfred Silver's historical romance Acadia.
At Electropolis Studios in Halifax, Salter Street Films has a heavy production schedule with the 13-episode, second season of Made In film schools In Los Angeles, followed immediately by series three of Lexx. Production has also started on the third series of Foodessence and on the second installment of Mrs. Greenthumbs, both for the Life Network. Another seven hours of Emily of New Moon, a Salter Street Films coproduction with Cinar, begins production. Two half-hour pilots from Salter Street will appear on tv screens within the next year. A comic period piece called Black Fly, written by Ron James and directed by David Story for Global, is set to shoot July 5 in Halifax. Black Fly features an utterly inexperienced guide leading a group of ill-equipped people into the wilderness.
Pipe Dreams is a half-hour sitcom pilot for the cbc about the misadventures of two couples. The husband of one pair and the wife of the other are killed in a car accident, and the surviving spouses are thrown together. The mismatched pair are soon at loggerheads, and the appearance of the ghosts of the dead husband and wife further stirs the pot. Salter Street will be drawing from literary sources for Cod, a documentary series based on Mark Kurlansky's history of the international cod fishery. A coproduction with Primitive Features in Toronto, the three one-hour episodes will be hosted by Mary Walsh and begin shooting this summer. A broadcast deal with Discovery is in place for Cod, as are presales to Iceland and Portugal.
With Black Harbour coming to an end, Topsail Entertainment president Michael Volpe is turning his hand to documentaries over the summer and fall. Topsail is executive producing a 13-episode doc series called Steeplechasing for Vision. A coproduction with Larry LeClare of p.e.i. and ABD Productions in Halifax, the musical travel show features host Geoff Noble visiting church steeples in communities throughout the Maritimes. Volpe and partner Barry Cowling eventually hope to take the show across Canada and then to Europe. In July, Topsail starts production on Stories from Pier 21, a two-hour documentary about the history of Pier 21 in Halifax, which was the point of arrival for many immigrants coming to Canada. Holly Preston will direct Stories from Pier 21, and the documentary will be broadcast by the History Channel, with Vision as the second window. A third documentary on Topsail's schedule will take the producers on a return visit to Vietnam in July. Operation Smile follows a team of surgeons from Canada and the U.S. who travel to underdeveloped countries to treat people with facial deformities. Coproducers Calluna Productions and Hammond Productions, with executive producer Topsail, will return to Vietnam in November to document the progress of the patients.
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