The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, June 30, 1995                  TAG: 9506300456
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Short :   44 lines

BEACH FILM COMPANY WORKING ON TWO SERIES FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL

A Beach-based film-production company that makes the ``Archaeology'' documentary series for The Learning Channel has begun work on two new series for that cable network's sister, The Discovery Channel.

New Dominion Pictures Inc. will co-produce the new series, ``The New Detectives'' and ``Spellbound,'' with Les Productions Quai 32, a Canadian company.

Tom Naughton, New Dominion's president, said the contracts for the new series will help make up for the cancellation of another series, ``PaleoWorld,'' that ran on The Learning Channel. That series, which premiered last season, wasn't renewed for the fall.

New Dominion launched into television in 1992 with ``Archaeology.'' In its premier season, that series won a CableAce award as the nation's best cable-TV documentary series.

Naughton said filming has begun for an upcoming fourth season for ``Archaeology.'' First Landing State Park will be used as a backdrop for the host segments of some episodes, he said.

New Dominion has 18 local employees and subcontracts work to several other Hampton Roads production companies.

The ``Spellbound'' series will be the first of the new ones to air. It starts with a one-hour special entitled ``In the Footsteps of Dracula'' that Naughton said will explore the science behind the myth of vampires. That show will air around Halloween and should be followed over the next year by several others dealing with ``paranormal'' phenomena, he said.

``The New Detectives'' will begin running in April 1996. It profiles the work of forensics experts and the techniques they use to solve murders and other mysteries. Naughton said the Discovery Channel has committed to three one-hour shows for that series.

``The idea evolved before the O.J. Simpson trial,'' he added. ``We're not doing anything on that. Nothing.''

Naughton said New Dominion is trying to develop another series - for an undisclosed cable network - that focuses on dinosaurs. by CNB