(July 20, 2001)…Break out the garlic and sharpen up the stakes as the world’s most famous vampire is lurking into the Edmonton night. Nick Mancuso (Total Recall 2070, Stingray) dons the black cape of the infamous Vlad Tepes, the 15th Century Wallachian prince who inspired the Dracula legend in this week’s episode, directed by Rick Stevenson (The Dinosaur Hunter). Produced by Minds Eye Entertainment and Anaïd Productions, Mentors is currently filming 13 episodes in and around Edmonton for its third season.

Mentors follows the adventures of young brother and sister team, Simon and Crystal Cates, after their cousin, Oliver, bestows his invention, VisiCron, to them. Using this ingenious computer program, Simon and Crystal zap historical figures into their 21st Century lives to help them solve a particular challenge they’ve encountered. Along the way, the mentors reveal surprising, little-known facts about themselves, adding new hues to their already colourful lives.

In this week’s episode, Nothing to Fear, Simon is bullied by the Goth ice-rink manager and decides to extract a little revenge by having the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes (Nick Mancuso) put the scare on him. But Simon’s plan backfires and Vlad is out for blood, forcing Simon to realize that vengeance has potentially made monsters of them all.

“Every season we like to experiment and we’ve discovered that our characters can sometimes learn a tremendous amount from a mentor who’s not necessarily a paragon of virtue in that they come to see their tragic flaws and choose to avoid them,” states Producer, Josh Miller. “In researching the real Dracula, we found that he was a vengeful individual who lived and died by the sword. Our kids realize that revenge feeds on itself and must ensure that their own desire for retribution doesn’t escalate.”

Mentors was created by Josh Miller of Minds Eye Entertainment who is producing the series with Margaret Mardirossian of Anaïd Productions with Kevin DeWalt of Minds Eye Entertainment as Executive Producer. The series features Stevie Mitchell (Snow Day, Real Kids – Real Adventures) as Simon, Samantha Krutzfeldt (Orange Seed Myth & Other Lies Mothers Tell) as his sister Crystal, Brian Martell (Texas Rangers) as their father Norm Cates and Jane Sowerby (The Young Person’s Guide To Becoming a Rock Star) as their mother, Peggy.

Historic mentors include Frederick Banting (Matt Frewer in a Gemini Award-winning performance), Albert Einstein (Elliott Gould), Lewis Carroll (Thomas Cavanagh), Napoleon Bonaparte (Saul Rubinek), Ludwig van Beethoven (Henry Czerny), Daniel Boone (Roddy Piper), Dr. James Naismith (Joe Flaherty), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (William B. Davis), Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Kidder), Casanova (Tony Rosato), Dave Thomas as Oliver’s science teacher, Al Sherman, William Shakespeare (Stephen Ouimette) and William Randolph Hearst (Michael Moriarty).

Established in 1986, Minds Eye Entertainment is a fully integrated production, post-production and distribution entity with offices in Canada and the U.S. As Western Canada’s largest independent film and television production company, Minds Eye Entertainment has been instrumental in contributing to the country's thriving motion picture industry. Its award-winning feature films, television series, shorts and documentaries have been sold in more than 100 countries.

Anaïd Productions Inc. is an award-winning film and television production company focused on family programming and documentary series. Anaïd Productions Inc is a recipient of the CCA Rogers Communications award for the arts documentary Ronnie Burkett: A Line of Balance and Alberta Motion Picture Industries Awards for the comedy travel series, The Tourist.

Mentors is produced with the participation of The Family Channel Inc., the Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian cable industry, Telefilm Canada: Equity Investment Program, CTF:Licence Fee Program, Shaw Children’s Programming Initiative: the Dr. Geoffrey R. Conway Fund and the Shaw Television Broadcast Fund, the Alberta Film Development Program, the CFCN Production Fund, CanWest Western Independent Producer’s Fund, Independent Production Fund, The Videon Fund, the Government of Canada Film Tax Credit Program and Minds Eye International.

International distribution of Mentors is provided by Minds Eye International.

Watch Mentors at 9:30 AM on Saturday and Sunday mornings (ET/PT) on The Family Channel (check local listings for times and days).

Visit our website at www.mentorstv.com

For more information/interviews, please contact:
Larissa Banting APR
Unit Publicity (780) 438-8507