Production begins this month on SCI FI Channel’s new original series Sanctuary, which will shoot in Vancouver, Canada, in the manner of the feature films 300 and Sin City, the channel announced.

Sanctuary is the first television series to feature live-action actors shot almost entirely against virtual backgrounds, which will be added in post-production. Actors will be filmed on green-screen stages.

The 13-episode season of the one-hour drama is slated to debut in the fall.

Based on the Web series of the same name, Sanctuary stars Amanda Tapping (Stargate Atlantis) as Dr. Helen Magnus, a seemingly immortal woman who tracks mysterious creatures, harbors the benign ones and protects the world from the dangerous ones. She is joined in her quest by her daughter, Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), quirky tech whiz Henry and new recruit Will (Robin Dunne), a brilliant young psychiatrist/profiler with a knack for finding the strange and unusual.

Series creator Damian Kindler (Stargate SG-1) and producer/director Martin Wood (Atlantis) are executive producers and show runners. Sam Egan (Masters of Science Fiction) and Tapping also serve as executive producers.