The Yukon will be home to a new CBC mini-series written by longtime Whitehorse resident Daniel Janke.

The show, Northern Town, is about a meteoroid landing outside, what else, a small northern town.

'And it's about the type of people who go out looking for it,' said Janke, adding the series will be a dramatic-comedy.

Janke is hush-hush about giving away any other details, although he gave readings of episodes one and four at the Guild Hall over the weekend.

There will be six episodes of Northern Town.

Shooting will begin in February 2005 and Janke said there will be a casting call looking for Yukon locals to appear in the series. He said Northern Town Films will try to hire local people for the crew as well.

Janke is fairly new to working in film. Aside from this upcoming series, he has done work on a silent film for Bravo and is also about to start work on an animated series for the National Film Board.

Normally Janke works as a music composer, writing music for dance and film. He also used to be the artistic director for the Longest Night Society, which puts on an annual December show at the Yukon Arts Centre.

But Janke has always had an interest in fiction writing.

'I guess I just decided to come out of the closet.'

Janke approached Ontario's Foundry Films with the idea for Northern Town.

Entering into a co-production, Janke and Danny Iron, from Foundry Films, were able to find the funds for the $3.3-million project.

Funding was obtained from CBC Television, Telefilm Canada and the Yukon Film Incentive Program.

Iron said in an interview today he was drawn to the project because of the characters.

'They are sort of funny and sweet,' said Iron. 'I've never really seen a show like this on Canadian television before.'

Iron has never done any filming in northern Canada.

'But it's certainly an experience I'll be looking forward to,' he said.

Northern Town is scheduled for telecast on CBC in the fall of 2005.

Iris Merritt, from the Yukon Film Commission, said Janke's mini-series demonstrates the importance of territorial funding. She was referring to the $1 million given to the commission last fall.

Merritt said the funding is used to create new programs that will help get Yukon projects into production.

'If Yukoners can go to Telefilm or something like that and say they have regional support for their program, it helps a lot,' said Merritt.

When it comes to getting funding, Merritt said, it's an 'I'll come play, if you come play' business, adding that a filmmaker has to have access to several financial backers to make a go of his or her project.

Because a series takes longer to shoot than a movie, Merritt said, it will keep crews working and provide more training opportunities for Yukoners.