A Trio of Gemini Award Wins for Flashpoint

Congratulations are in order! Flashpoint has won three Gemini Awards this year:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series
Sergio Di Zio - Flashpoint - Acceptable Risk

Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role, Dramatic Series
Tim Rozon - Flashpoint - I'd Do Anything

Best Writing in a Dramatic Series
Mark Ellis, Stephanie Morgenstern - Flashpoint - Jumping At Shadows

The full list of awards for drama, children's or youth, and variety categories are available in this PDF.

Up Close & Comfortable with Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern

Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern can be seen in a new segment from CTV and TD Canada Trust called Up Close & Comfortable. During the short interview, the co-creators talk about what it's like to write for Flashpoint and how they approach season premieres and season finales differently from other episodes.

To watch the video, just visit the Up Close & Comfortable website and select Up Close with Flashpoint.

Flashpoint Finally Begins Broadcast in Japan, Season 1 Boxset Out Soon There Too!

Flashpoint continues to surprise us with new countries that it visits! One we were waiting for a while to hear about was Japan, just a month ago we reported of an actor from the Sailor Moon musicals appearing on a show with a similar premise. Today, Mark Ellis via his Twitter account RT'd a Japanese fan's tweet, and didn't know what it meant. After translating it, we wondered if the show was on the air there and turns out it is!

Flashpoint began on February 4th on FOX TV's special sister channel, FOXCRIME. The show is called "フラッシュポイント　-特殊機動隊ＳＲＵ-" - pronounced Flashpoint -Kidoutai SRU- which translates to Flashpoint -Special Riot Police SRU-. The show airs on Friday and Saturday nights, and the Japanese fans get a special treat since two episodes air back to back. They show the same episodes both nights. On January 22nd, Gaijin Tarento Dave Spector commented on the show, and this is featured at the bottom of FOXCRIME's Flashpoint Page. He writes (roughly translated):

Dave Spector - This is the best drama to get into!
Flashpoint -Special Riot Police SRU-

Every time I watch the show, the indescribable tension is unbearably good!
The SRU Group of the Canadian Police is always cool, composed, and professional.
They are more excellent than the American cops!
The casting is also in good taste.
Teamwork predominates!

There were only dramas featuring the American SWAT Team, up until now. This time, Toronto, Canada is baptized, and becomes the stage.

The calmness and professionalism make the SRU shine. Interesting! All at the first glance!

But the main reason I watch this show is because Jules is cute *laughter*.

The casting is all in good taste too.

As for the man who is the boss and leader, “Parker”, there is no messing with this negotiator.

The man who is always reliable "Ed" is an excellent first sniper.

The team leader gradually rearranges the team.

These adults all have sex appeal. Especially the Sniper "Jules", she's cute! I've been in love with her character since the first episode. This is a bit of a stretch, but I look forward to her future character development.

The rookie, "Sam" (a similar sniper) restrains his feelings and works very hard through the trauma of his best friend who was mistakenly shot.

Additionally, there is also "Spike", who knows the explosives and how they work, "Wordsworth"a devoted husband who has a good combat pace, "Lewis", a good soul who takes charge of the non-lethal weapons like stun guns and tear gas, and "Doctor Luria"

Anyway..."Flashpoint -Special riot police SRU-"?
It fits right in with everything you see.
I saw every episode.
It is the best!

Please watch the introduction that I hosted!

Paramount has also set up an official site for the show and the really neat thing is, they are getting both Season 1 and Season 2 boxset releases this summer. Season 1 will be released on July 9th, and Season 2 will be released on August 6th. Season 1's boxset will contain 13 episode, and Season 2's will have 9 episodes. The boxsets will cost you, each one is close to $100 USD. Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern were even quoted in a news release! It makes special mention of the incident in 2004 which piqued their minds and made them ask "In front of many people, you had to execute someone. How would you spend the rest of your day?"

Congratulations again to everyone in Flashpoint, and especially to Stephanie Morgenstern. You are the second person involved with Sailor Moon to make it big in Japan!

BREAKING NEWS: Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards Announced

Two big pieces of Flashpoint news were announced today! The first was a long-awaited announcement of the US DVDs for Season 2, and now an award nomination for show creators and writers Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis, along with writer James Hurst were nominated for their screenwriting on the Season 2 Part 2 opener, "One Wrong Move". We're calling it that since there was some initial Season 2/3 confusion. To check out the full list of nominations, check out TV_Eh here. Congratulations to Stephanie, Mark, and James, and we wish you all the best of luck when the awards are handed out on April 19th in Toronto!

Flashbits from August 2009!

Badgers and Doves, here come your Flashpoint tidbits for the month of August! P.S. Badgers and Doves is our new, Mark Ellis-approved, fan nickname. What do you all think?

Flashpoint Premieres in France and South Africa!

Flashpoint continues to conquer the world with two big premieres this month on two different continents. On August 6th, the show premiered in France on Canal+ and the first three episodes were shown that night in French! On August 20th, the show premiered for the first time in South Africa on Hallmark Channel(and was earlier named a pick of the week)! There are a couple interesting news articles coming out of France. One outlines reasons for the show's pickup, and remarks that while American dramas never cease to seduce both broadcasters and viewers, they are quite expensive for foreign countries to broadcast. Many similar kinds of shows have also either ended or been canceled. Many broadcasters choose to look to Canada for similar shows, because they are cheaper to produce. Since the Writer's Strike of 2007, ideas that were coming out of the US weren't as innovative as Flashpoint. The second reason the show was picked up was production quality. Even U.S. networks which were not warm to foreign imports, picked up Flashpoint because the Canadian standards were on par with Hollywood standards, and the format didn't stray too far away from similar US shows. The second article was just a short intro to the series and the first three episodes being broadcast on premiere night. 3 episodes back to back is overkill - two would have been just right! We're still waiting to hear on a premiere in an Asian country!

CBSC Deems Promo Not Violent

We're sure most Canadians have seen a Canadian Broadcast Standards Council commercial on TV at some point in their life. Usually when we see these commercials, it's because the watchdog NGO found something offensive on the network and the network needs to remind it's viewers that they strive to keep what they air within standards. A promotion for the episode Backwards Day disturbed the children of one very angry parent, and was aired during an NFL Football game, to the point where the commercial had to be censored by the parent. The CBSC recently announced its decision on how violent this promo was, and decided that it was not as violent as it seemed, and it was not in breach of broadcast standards. CTV just got a warning that promos for the show should air in a more appropriate timeslot. At least we don't have to see those CBSC spots during Flashpoint!

Flashpoint On Air in the Air?!

Mark Ellis informed his Twitter followers yesterday on the way to their much-needed family vacation in Florida that there are 5 episodes of Flashpoint available on Air Canada (writer Adam Barken later joked that he should watch it wearing full Flashpoint crew gear). Flashpoint Fan gcookie60 also shared that there were 6 episodes available on her flight! So for those of you who want something a little better to watch than their current movie selection, and you are flying on a longer Air Canada flight, why not make it a little more pleasant with the SRU?

Quickie Appearances in a Flash!

☄ Writer Tassie Cameron was listed by the Globe and Mail as one of Canada's Hottest Women Not On TV because she is "the girl who writes like a guy". Also featured are other writers on Flashpoint, Tracey Forbes (Planets Aligned, Attention Shoppers), and Esta Spalding who served as a consultant for the first season and wrote Backwards Day and Never Kissed a Girl. No mention of Stephanie Morgenstern?!

☄ Alchemy TV's co-founder and partner Simon Vaughan is set to be the keynote speaker at Strategic Partners, a very prestigious Canadian international co-production market in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This event will take place on September 19th. Alchemy TV is one of Flashpoint's key production partners, and is also the international distributor of the show.

☄ The_Nange pointed us to her pictures of a feature article with Enrico Colantoni (Page 1, Page 2)! He was interviewed in Autotrader's Newcar Magazine as part of their Stars in Cars section. He talks about his cars (past and current), how he drives, what his dream car is (you might be surprised!) , and who he'd like to have a car ride with. Thanks for sharing this with us, The_Nange!

☄ CBS just announced an official press release with the cover and details of the U.S. release of Season 1 (on standard DVD format), which was also posted on TVShowsonDVD. Confirmed extras include A commentary by director David Frazee on the first episode, Scorpio, and two featurettes: Flashpoint: Behind The Scenes - Season 1 and The Human Cost of Heroism.

Flashbits from July 2009!

Flashpoint has had a couple bits in the news in recent days!

New Episodes' Delay a Relief For Producers

Hot on the heels of CBS's sudden announcement that new episodes of Flashpoint were not going to air last week, we uncovered a few comments from Producer Bill Mustos on Playback Magazine. And they suggest that this delay is not necessarily a bad thing! Bill says:

"We've been able to slow down post-production, which is a bit of a relief to us because we've been on a very fast schedule"

Which we can understand - the show began shooting this year in January and is scheduled to continue until August. Mustos also said that CTV has ordered 13 episodes for a third season, and depending on CBS's return this may be extended to 18. He also noted that there is a lot of confusion in keeping track of Flashpoint's episodes since Season 2 in North America began with four episodes held back from the first season! This is one of the first acknowledgments we've heard from anyone involved with the show about this confusion! He also confirmed that the show is coming back to CBS as a midseason replacement. CTV has still not confirmed when the remaining Season 2 episodes will be broadcast.

New Interview With Flashpoint Creators:

Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis were featured guests at last month's Banff Worldwide Television Festival, and one lucky, blogging, screenwriter, got to interview them through email, and sit in on their sessions! Alex Epstein, best known for his work on Canadian hits 15/Love, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, and Naked Josh posted a compilation of notes from their Master Class session, and questions which the two answered via e-mail. This is well worth the read for you budding screenwriters, and behind-the-scenes aficionados. There are also a few comments included from Christina Davis, Senior Vice President for Drama Series Development at CBS. There's a lot of detail about their inspiration for turning this into a series from a proposed movie-of-the-week, and bonus detail about a cop they met during the development of the series.

Tassie Cameron Moves on to Motherhood, and Copper

Tassie Cameron was not a star of Flashpoint, but she was the spark that led the writing table from the beginning until just recently. Last month, she flew to Los Angeles with her writing partner Ilana Frank to pitch a new cop show to network execs called Copper. This one's about rookie cops fresh out of the academy making their ways through their careers. ABC picked up 13 episodes, and this happened shortly after the series was greenlit by Canwest Global. As we speak, the show is being shot, as Tassie is expecting her first child! The cast includes Canadian favorites such as Missy Peregrym, and Greg Smith. Eric Johnson of Smallville and Melanie Nicholls King of Law and Order are also joining the cast! Congrats to Tassie - we will miss seeing your words on Flashpoint, but we wish you the best of luck on your new show and a happy, healthy and safe journey into motherhood!

New Enrico Colantoni Interview with German Newspaper!

The German portal dedicated to American Entertainment, Serienjunkies, just posted a phone interview with Enrico Colantoni promoting the series, which is about to make its debut on German TV network RTL2. Für eine deutsche Übersetzung, klicken Sie bitte hier. He talks about the show and it's Canadian identity, how it has opened the door for other Canadian shows on American networks, and his character. One of the coolest parts in the interview is on the second page where he suggests that the show's peaceful nature of negotiation is something that fits into the current US political zeitgeist. We also have to wonder if President Obama watches the show! The interviewer Christian Junklewitz also suggests that he sing a song for the show, but Enrico laughs away from it. And, Enrico talks about another role which is a little too hot for this blog. We still think a musical episode would make for great filler just once!

Hugh Dillon Working Double Duty!

When not working as a sniper and leader on Flashpoint, Hugh Dillon plays a detective on Durham County. There have been a few articles lately talking about Hugh's involvement with both series. He is also due to release his debut solo album later this fall through Warner Music Canada! We wonder if his song from the show, Lost at Sea will be included. The album will be called "Works Well With Others" and he describes it as "a little more Leonard Cohen and a little less Lemmy from Motorhead." Hugh's success on both sides of the border continues to grow in new directions!

Flashbits from Banff!

The Banff World Television Festival was held from June 7-10th of this year! And among the many special guest speakers at the event were none other than the co-creators of Flashpoint, Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis. At the festival, they held a one our session talking about their craft, and answering such burning questions like:

What was their secret of breaking into the US market when so many others have tried before and failed?


How do you make a Canadian series airing worldwide not look like it was made in Canada?


How much influence does CTV and CBS have on creative decisions, such as direction and casting?

Their appearances and experiences with the show were written about in the press!

¤Before it all started, the New York Times talked with Mark and Stephanie, along with Anne Marie La Traverse (Producer), Bill Mustos (Producer), and Nina Tassler (President of CBS). They spoke of how the show came to be, how it doesn't look Canadian, and how the American entertainment industry has shifted to allow more international fare to be broadcast. Flashpoint was a pioneer in letting Canadian TV get on US airwaves!

¤Days after the festival, cartt.ca posted an article talking about how the show was shaped at the writing table - instead of having a show runner, all of the writers and freelancers collaborate as a team. However, we disagree with their comment about their lack of experience. Stephanie Morgenstern has acted on various TV shows and wrote for two critically acclaimed short films, Remembrance and Curtains. The former even has a movie in the works. Mark Ellis was also a writer on Remembrance. While this may not seem like a lot, the fact that these two productions won many awards speaks volumes that they had some pretty good skills to start with! Plus, the show spent four years in development (watch the W5 special for more). That's more than many shows on the air today can say!

¤Sometime after the festival , the Calgary Sun posted an article wherein Mark and Stephanie talked about some of the challenges to stay true to Canada within the episodes, despite limitations put on by CBS.

New Interview With Flashpoint Creators!

Hey Moonies! Still no word on any airdates for the last four episodes, or if there will be a boxset released soon. Canadians can click here to purchase episodes on iTunes.

We came across an interview though that we thought you all might really like to read. Mike McPhaden, a contributor to the blog Running With My Eyes Closed recently got the chance to sit down with Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis to chat about Flashpoint. This is a really good interview because it shows fans from their point of view a lot of things about the birth of the series that even we didn't know (and we were one of the few blogs to cover the show extensively from the beginning)! We think you will all get a good idea of how hard they have worked to bring this show to life, from the extensive amounts of research, to the handshaking of many big names in TV, to finally moving from a Movie of the Week prospect to a series. One of the highlights of the interview was learning the different names that they tried to come up with for the show's title. Our personal favorite is their daughter's suggestion of "Bad Guys Run Away!" Perhaps that title could be used for a future episode (hey, we'd watch it :) )! Part one is located here, and part two is located here.

Flashpoint Ratings September 18th

Flashpoint's season finale on CBS scored a record number of viewers in the United States - 9.66 million to be exact! The show was #1 in it's timeslot and 2.6/7 with viewers 18-49. Mark Berman is certain that the show will return on the network at a later time (and that was written hours before CBS made their announcement). This number was an all-time high for the series, and we couldn't be prouder! Even more surprising was a CTV Press release we found giving us the show's ratings ahead of BBM Canada! The show also hit a high in Canada with 1.46 million viewers, and the show peaked at 10:51 PM (9 minutes before the show ended) with a total of 1.66 million viewers. A total of 2.5 million viewers watched all or part of last night's episode. The show was #1 across all key demographics all across the country. While Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos seem to be getting all the credit in the media, we're a little dismayed there's little being said about the creators of the show, Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis. Without them creating the show, the producers wouldn't have this show to produce. So, congratulations again to Stephanie and Mark on a hit show, and many more episodes to come!

BREAKING NEWS: CBS Finally Renews Flashpoint!

We were ecstatic to come home from our day to finally hear the news we were waiting for! Many media outlets are now reporting that CBS has indeed renewed Flashpoint for 13 episodes next season! We would like to take this time to thank every fan who supported this show from the beginning. We have been reporting everything we possibly could about this show since last Fall, and seeing news like this really makes us jump for joy - we are elated with the success that Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis have achieved with this show, and we couldn't be more proud. We think that of all the North American VA stories that we have reported so far, Stephanie's has been the standout of this year - for a Canadian TV show to hit it big after such a long time on a US network is no small feat! We absolutely loved last night's episode, and although the fate of the last four episodes of the season are unknown as of this writing on CBS, we were so happy to hear it went out on a high note scoring 9.66 million viewers last night! We can tell you that CTV has moved the show to Sundays, and on September 28th the episode "Eagle Two" will air. According to the press release, the summary reads: "the SRU is handling a routine VIP protection shift when a bomb goes off. Realizing the bomb was a distraction tactic so that the VIPs wife could be kidnapped, the SRU attempts to find her. The kidnapping turns to horror when the wife is found alive - with a remote-controlled collar bomb around her neck." We'd like to extend congratulations on behalf of the staff and readers of this site to the cast and crew once again on a job well done and continued success - and we will be here just as much as we were this season next year! We will also continue to be there for all of you with summaries for the last episodes airing on Canadian television.

P.S. Last Night's Summary and Ratings will be up later this weekend.

BREAKING NEWS: Flashpoint Autographed Script Up For Charity Auction!

We just found out about this and we think that this is the ultimate for any of our readers who are Flashpoint fans (you all are, right :Þ ? ). An autographed copy of the script for the episode Scorpio is up for an auction , and bidding starts at $75. It was also signed by the production staff, including Stephanie Morgenstern, Mark Ellis, Marie La Traverse, and Bill Mustos. The proceeds from the auction go to a good cause, the Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program. This is a special non profit organization formed in 1992 to provide training opportunities to minority college graduates in TV/radio news reporting and news management. This is a collectible worthy of any Flashpoint fan's collection!

Flashpoint Premieres Today!

Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis' brainchild Flashpoint premieres tonight on CTV and CBS (check your local listings). We've read a little shaky buzz over the fact that the show is premiering on a Friday, and after reruns of Numb3rs. But most of the reviews we have read are very positive. This is why it's important for every fan who can to watch it tonight. I was planning on liveblogging it tonight but unfortunately I have to be somewhere when it airs. Nonetheless, I will have a summary up tonight, I'm recording the show and if that fails , I will catch it on timeshift at the very least.

We've learned a lot more details about the show in the last day. It costs nearly 2 million dollars to create each episode of the show, and to date is Canada's most expensive TV production. There are eight episodes finished , with five left to go. Stephanie Morgenstern appears in a few places throughout the series, and she and Mark spoke very candidly about the show in an interview with Blogtalk radio/TV Eh?. Mark even fills in during readings for parts that haven't been cast yet! Fans should definitely give this podcast a listen if they haven't already! The first episode Scorpio, is a twist of a real incident which happened in the summer of 2004. The show's story involves a Croatian man who is very disturbed over a divorce, and he takes an innocent woman hostage in the middle of downtown at lunch. The second episode, First in Line involves a hospital blip where a father learns a heart promised to his ill daughter has been given to someone else. The father then turns the gun on the hospital team leaving the SRU faced with a difficult decision. The third episode The Element of Surprise tells of how drug gangs tear apart families. Cast member Amy Jo Johnson (best known as Kimberly the Pink Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) has a song that will be used at the end of the this episode, to the delight of her fans everywhere!

Again, this is a huge year for all the VAs of Sailor Moon and we here at Moon Chase really want to see them continue on their ventures (so that every year can be bigger than the last)! It's important for us fans to support them in everything that they do to the best of our abilities. So please, catch this show when it airs! We'd like to extend a huge thank you to Jay Navok at Genvid who has assisted us in promoting this show!

Flashpoint Update!

We are two days away from the premiere of Stephanie Morgenstern's Emergency Task Force drama, Flashpoint. While the show has no standalone official website, we have found that the networks sites each offer something different - and that they don't like to share. Exclusive content that CTV has can't be accessed from the US, and vice versa for CBS. Thankfully we have at least one member on either side of the border to have all our bases covered :). We're gonna try to liveblog the premiere as best as blogger will allow us to! The show is already garnering lots of positive buzz on both sides of the border.

CBS's site doesn't have a whole lot aside from cast bios, but they do have something that CTV does not: a 5 minute interview with the creators and the actors. Fans get to see Stephanie Morgenstern and her husband Mark Ellis talk about the show, along with the cast members and their takes on their characters. There's even some behind-the-scenes footage of the show and the cast learning more about their craft from real officers! The promo can be watched here, however it is not viewable on CBS's site by Canadians.

CTV on the other hand doesn't have any videos other than a short 1 minute teaser. But, they do have a lot of reading for those of you wanting to learn a lot more about how the series came to be. Fans can check out a bio of Stephanie here, and a very long story about how the show came to be here. Stephanie and Mark had been working on a film adaptation of their short, Remembrance, and we had almost thought that was abandoned in light of Flashpoint (thankfully, we read here that it wasn't!). We're disappointed Stephanie neglected to mention her role on Sailor Moon. Sailordees attended a convention in 2004 where she had the opportunity to meet her and she spoke highly of the show saying that it was such a starting point for putting Canadian talent on the map. And we all have to agree because every star on that show has gone on to bigger and better ventures (even we have a hard time keeping up with them all). Hey, if Amy Jo Johnson can get away with mentioning she was a Power Ranger, why be so shy?

Fans who are all over the world can check out an interview they did over Blogtalk Radio here. We are reminding every fan that reads this website in the U.S. or Canada to please check your local listings for this Friday night so we can all support Stephanie Morgenstern and congratulate her on this huge achievement! We wish her the best of luck with this series!

Count Down To Stephanie Morgenstern’s Big TV Debut!

Look where the poll is - we’re counting down to the premiere of Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis’s brainchild, Flashpoint! The show will be running simultaneously on both CBS in the USA and CTV in Canada July 11th at 10PM EST (check your local listings). CBS has started to put together an official website for the show here, but CTV hasn’t put one up yet. We will be watching the show and keeping you updated with show summaries , but we think that this deserves a really big celebration. In the past, we have featured clips of the VAs appearances on TV shows, but for this show we will not because it is currently on the air and episodes are viewable online. We will only post if we get a clip from Stephanie or the producers themselves. We encourage all Sailor Moon fans to come together and watch this when it premieres, grab your family and friends to show Stephanie support for her new venture! In the meantime, check out this sneek peek at CBS’s site - Stephanie Morgenstern herself appears as the hostage! Flashpoint also stars Amy Jo Johnson as Julianna. Amy is probably better known among our readers as the Pink Ranger from the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (don’t be afraid to admit it, you used to watch it as a kid)!
In another sighting we completely forgot to mention last time, Stephanie also appeared on Degrassi: The Next Generation in the episode right before Dennis Akayama appeared. In Death Or Glory: Part 1, she appeared as Dr. Rota, and gave Spinner the diagnosis that he was suffering from cancer. Fans can watch the episode online at CTV (in Canada) or The N (in the United States).

Stephanie Morgenstern’s Pilot Picked Up By Major US Network!

As of last week, the Writers Guild of America’s strike had ended. However, before that, networks were faced with a problem, should the strike have carried on for longer. What were they to do about the upcoming television season? Many turned to Canada, where the writers were not on strike, and signed deals with many Canadian television productions. One such production was one that we have been following since last fall, Flashpoint (A.K.A. Sniper and Critical Incident). Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband, Mark Ellis, created the show and are also writers for it! We are incredibly happy that finally, fans across the border can also catch this sighting, as CBS is the lucky network who has picked up the first season’s 13 episodes! Most times, a former VA will appear on a Canadian television show and their fans in the United States are unable to catch them - unless a pilgrimage is made to Canada! Flashpoint is the first series since Due South to be sold to a US network! The show has been in development since 2005 and got the greenlight for a pilot last summer. CTV greenlighted the drama last December. CTV has put a video preview of the show on their site, however the link appears to be broken as it takes you to a video of Canada AM. We will as always, keep you informed on future developments of this show! According to a press release, Flashpoint is about "an emotional journey into the tough, risk-filled lives of a group of cops in the SRU (inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force). They're unique cops that can do what ordinary cops can't: rescue hostages, bust gangs, defuse bombs, climb the sides of buildings and talk down suicidal teens. Members of a highly-skilled tactical team, they're also trained in negotiating, profiling and getting inside the suspect's head at the very emotional breaking point (the "flashpoint") that triggered the crisis. They'll do whatever it takes to diffuse the situation to try to save lives - all in a day's work." Congratulations again to Stephanie and Mark!

Almost There!

Hey Moonies! I'm still under the weather but there was major news yesterday for all you Stephanie Morgenstern fans! Because of the Writers' Strike, networks are scrambling to find ways to bring new content to their networks. American Network CBS has just picked up Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and Mark Ellis's Sniper which has just been renamed again to Flashpoint! It's difficult for our readers that are south of the border to catch work from their favorite Sailor Moon VA's, so we are elated to hear that this is a sighting that all of our North American readers can make with ease! Congratulations again to Stephanie and Mark!

Speaking of Stephanie Morgenstern...

It appears that her and Mark's pilot has been successful in their pitch to CTV and has been given picked up for a 13 episode run on CTV! Though it seems the title has been changed from Critical Incident to Sniper. We wish both of them the best of luck with this new venture which begins shooting in the Spring of this year.

BREAKING NEWS: Stephanie Morgenstern Completes New Pilot!

For all our readers, we've dug up some very exciting Breaking News this weekend. A while ago on Moon Chase, we told you that Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) was going to play the wife of the main character in Ice Planet - which we haven't heard too much news about lately, other than it has started to shoot (some preliminary animation is currently underway), a channel in Germany has picked it up, and some CG work has started. This will not be her only TV production, we have learned. Stephanie and her husband Mark Ellis got a green light from CTV earlier this year to film a pilot for Critical Incident. Critical Incident is an action drama that goes behind the scenes of Toronto's SWAT team (or rather Emergency Task Force). The pilot just completed filming in Toronto's Commerce Court business district July 25th, and will be handed to executives this Fall in the hopes that it will be picked up for the 2008 Fall Season. From what we have read, Stephanie will not be appearing in this series but will be writing for it with her husband. The cast of the pilot includes some major TV stars such as Enrico Colantoni of Veronica Mars, and Ona Grauer of the Canadian hit Intelligence. Congratulations and we wish Stephanie and the rest of her crew the best of luck with this show!