The CBC on Thursday unveiled its winter 2012 schedule, led by the Adam Beach-starring drama Arctic Air (pictured) on Tuesdays, and the new sitcom Mr. D on Monday nights.

Beach will play Bobby Martel, one of a group of renegade pilots based in Yellowknife, in the one-hour drama on Tuesdays at 9 p.m.

History Television’s Ice Pilots NWT reality series is sending viewers on an online scavenger hunt to beef up its third-season website.

The digital extension comes courtesy of design studio Switch United, social games producer Pug Pharm Productions and FanTrust. Ice Pilots NWT is produced by Omni Film and is now in its third season.

The land of the midnight sun can be a funky place to fly, especially when, as one veteran mechanic grouses in the new season of the high-flying docu-reality series Ice Pilots NWT, "We're dealing with (colourful adjective) worn out junk."

(October 11, 2011 - Toronto, Ontario) You know you're getting old when too many of your stories begin with the phrase When I was a little boy. But when I was a little boy, twelve, thirteen, perhaps a bit younger, there was a small airline with a large name located in a isolated spot of the airport at Dorval, Québec, now known as Pierre Elliot Trudeau International.

Impossible Pictures and Omni Film Productions will co-produce a 13-part spin-off, "Primeval: New World," that uses extensive elements from the British sci-fi drama.

TORONTO – Brit producer Impossible Pictures is pacting with Omni Film Productions on a Canadian spin-off of its Primeval sci-fi series on ITV.

The twist is the new Canadian series, Primeval: New World, will be structured as a Canada-UK co-production, and will use characters and story-lines from the British Primeval series, while inserting new Canadian characters and story-lines into the local version.

Bell Media looked to Britain and Broadway for inspiration for its new Canadian shows.

The UK series Primeval (pictured) has done so well on Space, Bell Media has ordered a 13-part Canadian-made spinoff, Primeval: New World, from Omni Film Productions.

The mediaco also ordered for its Bravo! channel Broadway Bootcamp, a 13-part reality show about 18 Canadian amateurs preparing to perform a Broadway musical in front of a live audience.

Corrie Coe, SVP of independent production at Bell Media, commissioned Primeval: New World as a one-hour scripted adventure drama that diverges somewhat from the popular British series, featuring new Canadian characters and storylines from Canadian writers.

Omni Film Productions, Cineflix Productions and Clearwater Documentary were among the multiple award winners at the first night of the 26th annual Gemini Awards, which recognized talent in the news and sports, documentary, lifestyle and reality categories.

While we all wait for another season of Ice Pilots, NWT to hit the airwaves next year, the fine folks at History Television, Omni Films and Buffalo Airways have something special to tide us over.

Adam Beach returns to Canada for CBC role.

Welcome back to Canadian TV, Adam Beach. My longtime buddy (OK, he doesn't know me, but I've interviewed him a bunch of times in my career) has claimed the lead role in CBC's new drama series, Artic Air.

The network made the announcement yesterday via press release, revealing the affable actor will play Bobby Martel in a series about airplane pilots toiling in the wilds of Yellowknife.

"The physics of bouncing something on water is relatively simple," says Dr Hugh Hunt, breezily. "But actually doing it, at scale, under a plane, building a dam and blowing it up, is much more of an engineering exercise than a science exercise.

There are few more memorable stories in the history of Britain's Armed Forces than that of Operation Chastise – better known, of course, as the Dam Busters raid. The bravery of the pilots who flew Lancaster bombers at the great dams of West Germany is the stuff of Second World War legend.

Homegrown drama from Omni Film Productions is the latest addition to pubcaster's primetime slate. Canadians have already warmed to Omni Film’s Ice Pilots NWT on History Channel, a reality series that also airs on National Geographic U.S. So the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has ordered a new drama, Arctic Air, from indie producer Omni Film Productions, to bow in winter 2012.

The Return of The Dambusters, a copro between Vancouver’s Omni Film Productions and Windfall Films, has been commissioned by History Canada, WGBH Nova and Channel 4. The 1×120 minute special follows dam engineers, explosive experts, mechanics and aircrew, as they restage the 1943 bombing raids on Germany. The end goal will be the creation of a 130-feet wide, 30-feet high concrete dam, a modified Douglas DC4 flying perilously low and one huge explosion.

UK broadcaster Channel 4 will air a documentary it commissioned with History Channel Canada recreating the Second World War Dambusters bombing raid. The Return of the Dambusters (1x120') is a copro from UK indie Windfall Films and Omni Film Productions in Vancouver. Details of the show were first unveiled by History in September last year. C4 has now announced its involvement in the project, which follows engineers, explosives experts and aircrew as they try to recreate the 1943 raid by a Lancaster bomber squadron on key dams in Germany's industrial heartland, using the innovative 'bouncing bomb.'

Vancouver’s Omni Film Productions is going behind the scenes with the people who make fireworks presentations possible. New Discovery Channel Canada factual series Pyros (eight x 1-hour) revolves around a team of professional pyrotechnicians as they travel the world with their fireworks shows.

“Behind every brilliant fireworks presentation is a crew of crazy mavericks working like mad to design, set up and implement the show while not blowing themselves up in the process,” said executive producer David Gullason in a statement. “Viewers will get a behind the scenes look into just what it takes to be a pyro pro.”

National Geographic US has picked up season one of Omni Film Productions’ Ice Pilots NWT. The series takes off on the American net this May. Season two of Ice Pilots NWT is already airing on History in Canada, with season three in front of the camera. The series has sold into Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand, Scandinavia and the UK.

Are you getting tired of my past Nuts & Bolts Column devoted to Ice Pilots NWT, or did you skip my feature on the show, which returned for a Season 2 this past Wednesday night? well, tough - I write about stuff that interests me and Ice Pilots is one show i can't get enough of.

YELLOWKNIFE- There's no sound quite like a Curtiss C-46 Commando taking off on a winter morning.
Bangbangbang it sparks, like slow-motion machinegun fire. It takes a while for all 36 plugs to fire the 18 "pots" or cylinders. Flames leap from the cowling as the fuel flows through the system.

The 60-plus-year-old airplane propellers start up with a bang and a puff of smoke as I make my way across the frozen tarmac at Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife, N.W.T. Boarding the plane, there are no terse instructions about buckling seat belts or turning off cellphones, perhaps because the technology on the plane is older than cellphones. While this DC-3 once flew paratroopers into Normandy on D-Day, it now makes daily round-trip stops between Yellowknife and Hay River, approximately 45 minutes across Great Slave Lake. It’s safe to say there is nothing quite like flying with Buffalo Airways.

“I want to get away … I want to fly away.” Those words, uttered by Lenny Kravitz in his song “Fly Away,” kick off every episode of Ice Pilots NWT. They couldn’t be more perfect. Not only do they convey the literal sense of flying, which is precisely what the hit History Television series is all about, but they refer to getting away from it all, which to a Toronto boy like me, means the Northwest Territories themselves.

It's nearing the end of a dinner party on a frosty December night in Hay River, N.W.T., when Buffalo Joe McBryan addresses a small group of journalists sitting at his family's table. After an evening of storytelling, bad jokes, reminiscing and general pontificating about the nature of the north, the former bush pilot turned millionaire airline owner turned reluctant reality-TV star is looking for some straight answers. "You never did answer my question," he says, looking us all over. "What are you going to write? Awkward silence, or any sort of silence, is rare at gatherings of the McBryan clan, the lively family at the centre of History Television's The Ice Pilots NWT.

Toronto -– These days being a journalist can be a tough job. And with the publishing industry in flux, it is often travel writers who are the first to be sent packing. In season three of OLN’s Word Travels (14 x 30’) go behind-the-byline and watch as seasoned Canadian travel writers Robin Esrock and Julia Dimon work harder and travel farther than before to find never-before-told-stories to file for increasing slim travel sections. With a superbly scored soundtrack and fast-paced editing, Word Travels airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT beginning March 7 on OLN.

CLICK HERE to watch a preview of Word Travels season three.

VANCOUVER -- Marijuana is believed to be a $20 billion industry in Canada. But most discussion about the drug is centered around the moral issue of whether to legalize it or not. Lionel Goddard thought it was high time somebody looked at marijuana as a business, not a social issue. The result is CannaBIZ, an hour-long documentary airing on CBC-TV’s DocZone tonight at 9 p.m. Goddard is a former CBC reporter turned documentary filmmaker. He was approached by the network to do a film on “the state of the marijuana industry in Canada,” which is a broad subject...

History Television announced today that the smash-hit living history series Ice Pilots NWT has been greenlit for a second, adrenaline-packed season. The extraordinary adventures of a group of elite pilots in Yellowknife have captivated Canadians, making Ice Pilots NWT History Television’s top-rated Canadian series in channel history. The second season is set to air in fall 2010.

“It’s been extremely gratifying to witness the success of Ice Pilots NWT and we’re thrilled that critics and viewers have responded so positively to this homegrown series,” said Christine Shipton, Senior Vice President, Drama and Factual Content, Canwest Broadcasting. “The ongoing ratings victories and dedicated fan base are testament to the hard work and ingenuity of the team at OMNI Film Productions and our own Canwest executives. We can’t wait to bring our viewers a second season of gripping exploits, brought to life by the unforgettable crew of Buffalo Airways and the spectacular setting of our very own Northwest Territories.”

The one-time code of the marijuana industry – No guns, No coke – has changed. Canada’s $20-billion marijuana industry is now at a violent crossroads between crime and commerce. Impossible to police, yet steadily gaining public acceptance, the cannabis industry is now so vast and vital to Canada’s national economy that it can no longer be ignored.

Premiering Thursday, January 28th at 9 pm PST/EST on CBC TV’s Doc Zone, CannaBiz untangles the inner workings of the exploding marijuana business and raises serious questions about Canada’s drug laws.

David Gullason has a cool job, and there’s none more so than his latest creation, Ice Pilots NWT. The Canadian producer behind Stuntdawgs, Wild at Heart, Icebound and Storm Warning scored a major hit with the Omni Film Productions Ltd. project, which bowed to a record-breaking 459,000 viewers on Nov. 19, the biggest-ever debut for a Canadian specialty series.

Ice Pilots is a mix of men (pilots), machinery (Second World War planes) and the elements (the Northwest Territories in winter) that has proved addictive to TV addicts like me. So how did Gullason dream up the idea to document these ice pilots? Simple: he read a story about German and British tourists who were seeking out “Buffalo” Joe McBryan and his crew, who are the only ones in the world to use wartime planes for everyday use. He knew it would make for good TV

Ice Pilots NWT opened red hot in the overnight ratings for its series premiere on History Television Wednesday night. Omni Film’s 13 x 1 hour real life docu series about a renegade Arctic airline that flies World War II planes scooped up the biggest audience ever on the channel for a Canadian series opener with 459,000 viewers. With a lead-in from the channel’s biggest series to date, Ice Road Truckers, the new series actually boosted those numbers by a whopping 42%. It was the highest rated show that night on specialty TV in its timeslot.

Scott Blue, a rookie co-pilot at Buffalo Airways, always thought that life at the airline – based in Yellowknife – would make a good TV show. So when History Television came calling, he wasn’t surprised.

Hence Ice Pilots NWT, a 13-part doc that follows the six-foot-seven Toronto native and a motley crew of fellow pilots, mechanics and office staff who are a part of Buffalo Joe McBryan’s business of flying Second World War airplanes around the frozen north.

“I read an article about two years ago, about tourists going up to Buffalo from the U.K. and Germany, to see these old World War II planes in action,” says David Gullason (Stuntdawgs, Untold Stories of the ER), creator and producer of Ice Pilots, on the line from Vancouver.

The story may be apocryphal, but that doesn't stop the devil-may-care Buffalo Airways ice pilots in Hay River, N.W.T., from repeating it.

Airline founder Joe Mc-Bryan, or "Buffalo Joe" as he's better known, was flying a planeload of out-of-control hockey players, so the story goes. They wouldn't settle down -- any NHL coach can relate -- so Buffalo Joe pointed the nose of the 1940s-era plane skyward and flew it to 14,000 feet, where the boys passed out in the thinner air. And a legend was born.

Mikey McBryan, Buffalo Joe's son and one of the onscreen stars of Vancouver filmmaker David Gullason's new docu-reality series, Ice Pilots NWT, is a chip off the old ice block.

You’ve got to pity the production crew of History Television’s dramatic new documentary series, Ice Pilots NWT. Filmed in the glacial climes of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, a.k.a. “Canada’s coldest city” with temperatures that can plunge to -51.C°, the inhospitable winter weather is palpable. Fortunately, this sacrifice of warmth isn’t in vain. Ice Pilots, which documents the daily travails of the pilots and crewmembers at Buffalo Airways, a small but essential airline in the frozen north, is a fun and unique addition to the “dangerous/miserable job” reality show genre. The cast is character-rich, to say the least (just wait until you meet mechanic Chuck Adams) and the drama balances TV-worthy life-and-death moments with the petty aggravations and interpersonal squabbles that define modern employment.

Two of the series’ stars, genial pilot Scott Blue and equally good-humoured manager Mikey McBryan discuss Yellowknife weather, how it feels to fly vintage planes, and what it’s like to see themselves on TV.

As Canadian astronaut Julie Payette preps for the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour tomorrow morning to join fellow Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk on the International Space Station, CTV is also preparing to defy gravity. The new CTV/SPACE drama series DEFYING GRAVITY debuts Sunday, August 2 at 9 p.m. ET in a special two-hour super-simulcast premiere on CTV, /A\ and ABC. CTV's fourth cross-border scripted series continues August 9 in its regular timeslot, Sundays at 10 p.m. on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times). Created by GREY'S ANATOMY's James Parriott and executive produced by DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' Michael Edelstein DEFYING GRAVITY is a sexy, provocative space thriller set in the very near future, following eight astronauts - from five countries including Canada - on a mysterious mission through the solar system.

Defying Gravity, a Vancouver-shot science fiction TV series co-produced by Vancouver's Omni Film Productions, has been picked up by ABC to air in the United States. The one-hour series, which stars American actor Ron Livingston (Sex and the City) and Vancouver's Laura Harris (Dead Like Me) as interplanetary travellers, already has broadcast contracts with the BBC in the United Kingdom, CTV and Space in Canada, and ProSieben in Germany. Now, with ABC scheduled to air the series this summer, Defying Gravity stands to have the largest viewing audiences of any Omni production.

ABC is "Defying Gravity." The network has picked up Fox TV Studios' 13-episode adventure drama starring Ron Livingston. The internationally produced series, also set to air on Canada's CTV, Germany's ProSieben and the BBC, hails from familiar ABC auspices: creator/executive producer James Parriott, who served as an exec producer on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty," and exec producer Michael Edelstein, former exec producer of the network's "Desperate Housewives."

Production is well underway on a new 13 x 1 hr documentary series to air on History Television in Fall 2009. Ice Pilots NWT follows the adventures of pilots and would-be pilots at Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways, an extraordinary little northern airline with the most unusual fleet in the world. Buffalo still flies big, piston-powered propeller planes that were first flown in World War II, classics such as the DC-3, the DC-4 and the Curtis Commando C-46. The series tells the stories of rookie pilots who come to Buffalo to earn their wings flying these vintage war birds through some of the harshest conditions on the planet.

Two of the most successful executive producers in television, Grey's Anatomy's James Parriott and Desperate Housewives' Michael Edelstein could see that the best way of making a series about an international space station would be to find international partners. Eventually they worked with Fox Television Studios to put together networks from Britain and Germany and to partner with Canada's CTV and Vancouver's Omni Film.

Omni Film Productions is pleased to announce that it has received 14 Leo Award nominations for five of its programs. Highlights include 7 noms for THE DOLPHIN DEALER, the most for a documentary program or series, and 4 noms for SHE’S CRAFTY, the spunky lifestyle series, including “Best Information or Lifestyle Series" and “Best Host” for Wendy Russell. SYSTEM CRASH, a 4 x 1 hour series about the vulnerability of our infrastructures, received a “Best Documentary Series” nomination.

Trumpeter swans, one of the most majestic species of birds in Canada, are dying at alarming rates in southern British Columbia and in Washington state as well. A new W-FIVE PRESENTS documentary, MYSTERY OF THE TOXIC SWANS, reveals that lead shotgun pellets are the culprit and that they are dangerously impacting the swans’ natural habitat.

Premiering Saturday, January 24 at 7 p.m. ET on CTV and CTV HD (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times) and Sunday, January 25 at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery HD, the compelling one-hour documentary, MYSTERY OF THE TOXIC SWANS, follows a team of scientists as they search for toxic hot zones and try to solve a forensic mystery: where are swans ingesting lead in such deadly concentrations? Shot in high definition, MYSTERY OF THE TOXIC SWANS is an original CTV/Discovery HD documentary.

The BBC is teaming up with Fox Television Studios and broadcasters in Canada and Germany to coproduce DEFYING GRAVITY, a 13-part space drama that starts shooting in January.

Filming in Canada for six months from January 19, the adventure series is being made in association with Omni Film Productions, Canuck broadcasters CTV and Space, and German broadcaster ProSiebenSat1. It will broadcast on UK terrestrial BBC2 later next year.

Set in the near future, DEFYING GRAVITY revolves around the exploits of eight astronauts from five countries who undertake a mysterious six-year international mission through the solar system.

In these trying economic times the W Networks hit series, SMART COOKIES is back, with a fresh approach to smart spending and solutions to getting out of debt. With the success of their best selling personal finance handbook The Smart Cookies Guide to Making More Dough, the Cookies have recently shared their no-nonsense financial advice with major north American media including Oprah and the Today Show. This season the W Network series is showing Canadian families exactly how they too can get out of debt, attract more money and have fun while doing it.

Starting January 5 at 10:30 PST/ EST the SMART COOKIES series will address a variety of topics including, how to pay off your mortgage faster, how to recognize if your reward credit card is really worth it, and how to get healthy without breaking the bank.

Travel adventure show WORD TRAVELS returns to OLN on Sunday, January 18 (8:30 P.M EST) to reveal the “truth behind the byline”

Hot, young travel writers Robin Esrock and Julia Dimon share their unique experiences and perspectives as they explore 13 thrilling new travel destinations in season two of Word Travels. From the paradise oceans of The Maldives to the war zones of Sri Lanka, WORD TRAVELS, premiering Sunday, January 18, 8:30 P.M. EST, follows the extraordinary lives of Robin Esrock and Julia Dimon, two of Canada’s most popular travel writers, as they hunt down exciting stories to file for their readers. This season they’ll travel to (in order) Sri Lanka, Korea, The Philippines, Canada’s West Coast, Slovenia, Romania, The Maldives, Turkey, Ukraine, Taiwan, Jamaica, Belize, and Mexico.

Robin Esrock turned a scooter accident into a world tour. Then, he turned the world tour into a job. Esrock and Julia Dimon became co-hosts of Word Travels, an Outdoor Life Network (OLN) show and now get paid to travel the world. In his diary on the evolution of the show, Esrock looks back at the accident that made things happen, the lost luggage, the worm eating, the wearing of bullet proof vests and, of course, the glamour.

Mortgage brokers deserve their fair share of blame for the foreclosures haunting the housing market right now. And plenty of banks allowed too many people to take on too much debt.

But it was individual consumers who ultimately took on those loans. So as we consider how to avoid this collective financial mess again, one question keeps rolling around in my head: How much better off would the world be right now if people had their own personal finance committee to consult before making big money decisions?

I’ve long lamented the fact that there aren’t as many money clubs as there are book clubs. Plenty of us would be more successful in meeting our financial goals if we met regularly with a small group of like-minded people to lay our finances bare, from incomes to debt to our spending foibles. It would be one part Debtors Anonymous and one part Weight Watchers, a bit like the investment clubs that were popular in the 1990s but with every part of our financial lives under themicroscope.

What I didn’t do, but should have, was try to inspire an international movement around the idea. That’s what five women from Vancouver are trying to do with their new book, “The Smart Cookies’ Guide to Making More Dough” (Delacorte Press), and Web site, smartcookies.com.

Five years in the making and featuring unprecedented footage, THE DOLPHIN DEALER is the exclusive story behind the largest and most lucrative dolphin export deal in history, masterminded by former Vancouver Aquarium trainer, Christopher Porter. This powerful, thought-provoking documentary gives viewers a gritty look at the controversial capture and export of wild dolphins, and examines the issues and ethics behind the billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry.

SYSTEM CRASH, an exciting new series from Omni Film Productions, explores the critical, global megasystems that uphold our safety, health and finances. These huge and often invisible infrastructures are more vulnerable than we think. This four part series goes behind the scenes to examine the complex technical web of systems that we all depend on, the people who make them work, and the sometimes devastating consequences that happen when they malfunction.

System Crash is set to premiere on Learning Skills Television at 3 pm on Friday, Sept 19, 2008.

The paint may be peeling, the taps leaking and there may be an unpleasant smell here and there, but there’s never been a better time to move into ROBSON ARMS. Season 3 of the CTV Original Series returns Mondays at 9:30 p.m. ET beginning April 28 following Dancing With the Stars (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times). The season premiere and all-new weekly episodes follows special sneak previews last month that introduced new regular guest star Dave Foley and garnered the series’ highest audiences ever, with 812,000 viewers watching on March 10.

While travelling to exotic locations and writing about enlightening experiences may sound like an adventurous occupation, the life of a travel writer is not always as glamorous as it seems. Premiering Wed., Jan. 30 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on OLN, Word Travels is a new original Canadian series that follows freelance journalist Robin Esrock and national travel columnist Julia Dimon as they battle deadlines, jetlag, culture shock – and each other – to file the best travel stories possible. Filmed in 12 countries across six continents, each half-hour episode of the 13-part series reveals the real story of professional travel journalism – the truth behind the byline.

Omni Film Productions’ Make Some Noise, an extraordinary series about young people who are working to make this planet, and the people in it, better off, won the Gemini Award last night for Best Children’s or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series.

Who says crafts can’t be hip and stylish? She’s Crafty is a groundbreaking design show that dares to cross the line between craft and design – it’s a modern girl’s guide to crafting! Airing in prime time Monday’s at 8:00 p.m. EST (9:00 p.m. PST) on HGTV beginning October 1, 2007, She’s Crafty is a 23 x 30 series produced by Omni Lifestyle (a division of Omni Film Productions Limited) and Love Your Work Productions, Inc.

OLN together with Vancouver-based Omni Film’s Lifestyle Division announced today that production has started on Word Travels, a new 13-part, 30-minute original series that examines the real lives of two working travel writers Robin Esrock and Julia Dimon, as they journey to 12 exotic countries on six different continents and compete for the best stories while under the pressure of filing deadlines. Principal photography is scheduled to last approximately 13 weeks. A broadcast date has not yet been announced.

Makes Some Noise, an extraordinary series about young people from across Canada who are trying to make this planet, and the people in it better off, has been awarded the Shaw Rocket Prize. Produced by Omni Film Productions Limited and broadcast on CBC, Make Some Noise was named the winner of the $50,000 children's and youth TV programming award at a Toronto gala on Thursday, May 3, 2007. An international jury of broadcasters short-listed the nominees and a national jury of more than 700 grade 6, 7 and 8 students voted for the winner.

Omni Film Productions, one of Vancouver’s hottest television production companies, recently saw a record week of green lights from broadcasters. These include a one-hour pilot of the family series, Left Coast, for CBC; a two-hour documentary special also for CBC called West Coast Tsunami, a pilot for a lifestyle series for HGTV titled Crafty; and Shimmy, a 26 x half hour series for Canadian Learning Television, Access and Discovery Health U.S. Other projects green lit for development are Dirty Work, a one-hour dramatic series for CHUM, and Goode Manor, a half-hour comedy series for CBC.