By CLAIRE BICKLEY -- Toronto Sun
After Hayden Christensen
has finished exploring the galaxy, he might return to Canadian
TV.
The Thornhill-raised actor, named Star Wars' newest Anakin
Skywalker last month, has agreed to do more episodes of his
B.C.-based drama Higher Ground if the show is renewed, series
star Joe Lando said yesterday.
"Hayden has agreed to come back because he's very grateful
to the show," Lando said. "Higher Ground landed him a
manager, which landed him an agency, and from that his tape went
in to (George) Lucas' people."
On the series about troubled teens at a wilderness high school,
19-year-old Christensen plays Scott, a former football star
recovering from both a drug habit and being sexually exploited by
his stepmother. Lando plays the school's founder.
The show makes its Canadian debut this fall on ONtv. Its first
season of 22 episodes already has aired in the U.S. on cable
network Fox Family Channel, and the show has been sold to
broadcasters in France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
Whether it will have a second season remains to be seen.
Lando said Fox Family executives seem indifferent to the heat
Christensen's Star Wars casting could draw to the series and have
not committed to a continuation.
If Fox Family does opt out, NBC has expressed an interest in
running the show, then passing it on to PAX, the cable network it
partly owns, said Lando, one of the show's executive producers.
He praised Christensen as "a fine actor" but has also
been impressed by the potential of other young cast members,
particularly A.J. Cook and Meghan Ory.
"You know, all these kids in the show like acting. It's not
like they like it because they can go buy a Prada handbag, and go
get a video game or something like that. These kids love to act,
and Hayden is one of the true actors," he said.
When Christensen got the call to go audition for Anakin, he asked
Lando if he'd mind switching shooting schedules with him so he
could leave for California.
"I'm like, 'Do I mind?' You know, I'd be just a real ass----
if I said no," Lando said.
When Christensen phoned him to say he'd landed the huge part,
Lando got goosebumps.
"I ran upstairs and told my wife and I called my parents. It
was like I got the part," he said.
Lando has a lot of reasons for hoping Higher Ground continues.
Since he started work on it, he has sold his U.S. home, bought a
1930s cottage in West Vancouver and moved up his wife and
two-year-old son.
"I'm Canadian now," he said jokingly. "My name is
Joe. Like the Molson's thing."