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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Canadian-made sci-fi series gets ABC pickup

Defying Gravity, a CTV science-fiction series made in Vancouver, has been picked up by ABC in yet another coup for Canadian-made television programs.

The one-hour series, which stars Vancouver's Laura Harris, is co-produced by Canada's Omni Films with Fox Television Studios.

Described as a kind of interplanetary relationship drama, the series has some high-flying executive producers: James Parriott, who also runs Grey's Anatomy as well as Ugly Betty, and Michael Edelstein, the executive producer of Desperate Housewives.

Written by Parriott, Defying Gravity is based on the BBC drama Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets.

Defying Gravity вЂ" already sold to Britain and Germany вЂ" shifts back and forth in time, between the astronauts' present location in space and their past relationships on earth.

The series is CTV's fourth original production to be picked up in the U.S. CBS claimed Flashpoint and The Bridge while NBC added The Listener to its lineup.