Beat cops Al Arsenault and Toby Hinton were on the scene when the cameras started rolling on the tentatively titled Skid Road but it wasn't an official visit, says executive producer Pierre Sarrazin, who wants to make it perfectly clear that the TV film is only inspired by the infamous Odd Squad.

It's not a movie version of the acclaimed documentary that elevated the duo from Vancouver's finest to Vancouver's famous. "It's not a true story, it's really totally fictionalized," he stresses.

Arsenault, Hinton and other officers chipped in for a pro camera and formed the non-profit Odd Squad Productions five years ago to document their dealings with the characters that frequent their Downtown East Side beat, eventually resulting in Through a Blue Lens and other assorted projects mostly produced as anti-drug messages.

Yet it was a Torontonian, Sarrazin, who heard about the Vancouver cops and took the steps to take a fictionalized version to the small screen.

"I heard about the story, saw the documentary, read the articles and thought it would make a great subject for a dramatic movie," Sarrazin says.

Sarrazin linked up an impressive array of talent including co-producers/writers Chris Haddock and Alan DiFiore and other Da Vinci's Inquest alumni including director Lynne Stopkewich (Bliss, Lilith on Top) and cut a deal with CTV.

Odd Squad co-founder Arsenault confirms that the movie is "a little bit of fact and a lot of fiction." The producers did obtain the rights to the story, his squad was given a chance to read the script and they are welcome on the set, but they have no official input.

As Arsenault points out, with his Da Vinci experience, Haddock is already in familiar territory. Much of the 20-day shoot will be taking place in the vicinity of Hastings and Main.

Indeed, the nature of that beast is what would make it difficult to produce a movie based on the documentary even if they wanted to, given that obtaining releases from all the transient and fragile (and sometimes dead) characters featured in the documentary would be next to impossible.

The movie will star Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy, Nowhere Man) and Brian Markison (Angels in America, Sweet and Lowdown) along with Duncan Fraser, Ian Tracey, Terry Chen, Nancy Sivak and Alisen Down.

And of course Vancouver stars as Vancouver. "At one point I foolishly thought 'I can do this anywhere' and then realized I couldn't, the story really does need Vancouver," Sarrazin says.

Vancouver Province