For the first time in its history, specialty service Showcase Television, which traditionally buys drama already aired on network television, has commissioned an original, two-hour, Canadian movie for exclusive broadcast on its airwaves.

Produced by Arnie Zipursky of Cambium Entertainment and Lawrence Mirkin of Mirkin Creative, and written by Paul Dreskin (Tales From the Longhouse), The Ride is a $2.9-million, cutting-edge mow about the daily lives of cab drivers. "It's a real-life look at an urban cab company, a quality drama comparable to Homicide, with lots of points of view from the cab," says Laura Michalchyshyn, vp programming, Showcase.

Shooting in downtown Toronto from April 24 to May 19, The Ride features a stellar ensemble cast headed by Yaphet Kotto (Homicide, Alien), Al Waxman (The Hurricane, Cagney & Lacey), Ron White (Heart: The Marilyn Bell Story) and Rachael Crawford (Traders, Hoop Life).

Steve DiMarco (Due South) is directing.

Cambium has worldwide distribution.

The idea behind The Ride, which was originally pitched as a series, is to premier it as a pilot for a potential one-hour drama series, says Michalchyshyn.

It is also the beginning of a longer-term plan for the specialty service to co-create with producers and combine licences.

Ken Finkleman's Night and Day, produced by Rhombus Media, and Cite Amerique's Random Passage are examples of Showcase sharing licences with cbc.

Likewise, the channel's first-window involvement on Breakthrough Film & Video Productions' Paradise Falls - 52 episodes of which were recently greenlit with eip and lfp funding - and Cite Amerique's The Dice - the first six episodes of which were also given the go-ahead - exemplifies Showcase's commitment to working with the producers throughout the process.

In fact, in the recent eip rounds, Showcase was pretty much the only specialty service whose projects were greenlit.

"I think it's a good reflection of the industry where less drama is being pitched by the big networks," says Michalchyshyn.

Also, as an edgy broadcaster, Showcase continues to relish provocative new ways of presenting tv.

"We're looking for new, fresh, unique ideas from producers and directors, but we're also thrilled to partner with the networks for bigger profile series that we can't fund ourselves, like Random Passage," she adds.

On the same note, the channel is also making its foray into docudrama with Kink, the real-life stories of a group of sexually alternative folk in Vancouver, produced by David Paperny.

The Ride is set to kick off Showcase's fall season, in primetime, late August.

*Bright Anvil takes NASCAR to the moon

Introducing Bright Anvil Studios, a not-so-new, but less-than-visible concept and character design/ script creation company involved in some of the most visible animated programs on air today, including Brats of the Lost Nebula (Decode Entertainment/Jim Henson Productions), Beast Machines Transformers (Alliance Atlantis/Mainframe) and Action Man (Mainframe).