From Thunderbird Films: 

CBC Television’s Original Hit Drama to Return as New Movie-of-the-Week for Fall 2007

CBC Television, along with Thunderbird Films, today announced that production is underway in Vancouver on The Quality of Life-A Dominic Da Vinci Movie. The special two-hour television movie follows the popular Dominic Da Vinci franchise and picks up where Da Vinci City Hall left off. The Quality of Life will air during the fall 2007 season on CBC Television and in 2008 on Showcase.

“Dominic Da Vinci has become a true Canadian icon, and we jumped at the chance to bring him back to television audiences,” said Kirstine Layfield, Executive Director of Network Programming, CBC-TV. “We are thrilled with the screenplay and look forward to its broadcast premiere.”

Dominic Da Vinci first burst onto television screens in 1998 when Da Vinci’s Inquest debuted in Canada on the CBC. The series’ 91 episodes ran until 2005. The series has earned praise from critics worldwide and has been honoured with 32 industry awards and 53 nominations, including 18 Geminis, 5 Leos and 5 Writers Guild of Canada Awards.

A 13-episode spin-off of the crime series Da Vinci’s City Hall ran until 2006. Additionally, the Da Vinci franchise has had tremendous success in the U.S. since its debut in 2005.

Cleared in 98% of the country, the series reaches over 4 million viewers a week in the U.S. and continues to grow in popularity and to deliver solid ratings during its second year of syndication.

The Quality of Life once again teams up writer/creator Chris Haddock with Alan DiFiore and Nicholas Campbell, who will reprise his role of Dominic Da Vinci. Directed by John Fawcett, the television movie will also star fellow City Hall alum, Ben Ratner and Patrick Gallagher.

In this continuing story, Dominic Da Vinci and his fellow politicians become peripheral witnesses to a scandalous murder that happens, ironically, during a big city “crime” conference hosted by Da Vinci for mayors from across the country. With each attendee revealing only a piece of the puzzle, Da Vinci must not only solve the crime, but convince his fellow city leaders of their responsibility to be proactive in protecting their citizens.

 “The Canadian public cannot get enough of Da Vinci,” commented the film’s worldwide distributor Michael Shepard, President, Thunderbird Films. “We are honoured to team up with the CBC and bring Da Vinci back to broadcast television.”

From the New York Times:

• One couch potato, gently roasted
  “On the DVD commentary Mr. McKellar calls “Twitch City” an “anti-sitcom.” Many of the plot convolutions are indeed satiric variations on the roommate shenanigans that have long been a sitcom staple. (Joyce DeWitt of “Three’s Company” pops up in a knowing cameo.)”

• Twitch City DVD from Amazon.ca

From Bravo:

SIX “BATHROOM DIVA” FINALISTS FLEX THEIR
VOCAL CHORDS AT OPERA BOOT CAMP

Bathroom Divas: So You Want To Be An Opera Star?
The final six battle to win the ultimate singing competition

Saturdays at 9pm ET / 6pm PT (Repeats Tuesdays at 8pm ET / 5pm PT)

After a cross-country search for Canada’s next opera star, six finalists have been handpicked to take part in a rigorous opera boot camp in Toronto. The six opera hopefuls, hailing from Quebec to Calgary, are Paul Abelha (construction worker, Hamilton), Elaine Jean Brown (part-time model, Calgary), Robyn Hefferton (activist / entrepreneur, Calgary), Phillip Holmes (student, Norway Bay, QC), Donna Jacobs (day care worker, South Shore, QC) and Laura Landauer (Celine Dion and Cher impersonator, Toronto). The candidates vary in background and experience, but they all share the same goal; to be the next “Bathroom Diva”!

In the series premiere that aired Saturday, February 10 on Bravo!, judges Mary Lou Fallis, Tom Diamond, Liz Upchurch and Daniel Lichti audition wannabe singers in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal and Halifax. The six finalists are then thrown into opera boot camp, an exhaustive three-week crash course where they receive intensive voice training, acting technique, stage fighting and more than 12-hours-a-week of one-on-one coaching with opera’s finest. Antics ensue, flirtations blossom, conflicts arise – and divas are born.

Can Laura shake her Celine Dion-isms and find her own voice? Mother Elaine vs. daughter Robyn – who will make it further? Does Phil need a “Henry Higgins” to polish his country-boy ways? Can Donna bolster her self-confidence and find her inner diva? Will Paul build his dream and leave the construction site behind?

At the end of each episode, the remaining competitors showcase their newly-polished operatic skills at various venues in Toronto, including the Bravo! Rehearsal Hall, the Robert Gill Theatre and the historic Elgin Theatre. The judge’s criteria for selecting a winner is not only based on the protégés’ operatic singing abilities, but on their facility to learn and understand a new language such as Italian; how well they perform theatricality; and, above all, their ability to apply the coaches’ advice and critique.

Bathroom Divas culminates in the final episode with one singer selected as the winner and awarded the ultimate prize – a debut performance at The Orpheum Theatre with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in front of an audience of thousands.

Bathroom Divas airs Saturdays at 9pm ET / 6pm PT, with encore presentations Tuesdays at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.

For more information and updates, as well as blogs and exclusive behind-the-scenes sneak peaks, please visit www.bathroomdivas.com.

From Macleans:

• ‘Mr. Meaty’: for carnivorous eyes only
  “No one’s pushing carnivore consumption on impressionable minds. In response to the petitioning detractors, co-creator Jamie Shannon says, ‘I think they should take some irony supplements.’ “

From Playback:

• Decode creates a Buzz
  “The Family Channel has signed on for The Latest Buzz, a new 13 x 22 sitcom from Decode Entertainment about a youth-oriented magazine that replaces its staff with teens.”