Good news for anyone less-than-enamored with the selection and/or service at their local Blockbuster or Rogers video outlet; a new option is headed this way soon.

U.S. online video giant Netflix, Inc., is launching a subscription service in Canada to stream movies and TV episodes over the web to customers' TVs and computers. Unlike Netflix's U.S. service, which allows subscribers to receive DVDs by mail, the Canadian service will be streaming only.

Still, this is the first time Netflix, which has some 13 million members Stateside, has offered its services on foreign soil, so who knows what type of expanded service may be in the offing in future if this initial foray north proves popular.

The CBC reports that Canadian customers will pay a monthly fee to get unlimited video-on-demand starting this fall. Though the California-based company did not specify what that fee will be, it currently charges $8.99 a month in the U.S.

Speaking of video, a recent Hollywood North entry noted the DVD release of the excellent bio-pic The Runaways, written and directed by Canada's own Floria Sigismondi. It's on shelves tomorrow and well worth investigating.

Also excellent, coming soon to DVD and boasting a Canadian connection - My Dog Tulip, which screened last fall at TIFF and stars (the voice of) Canuck wunderkind Christopher Plummer plus Isabella Rossellini and Lynn Redgrave.

A dark if ridiculously charming, full-length animated feature based on a book by British writer J.R. Ackerley about a midlife bachelor who adopts a neglected German shepherd that fast becomes his BFF, the story chronicles the pair's decade-and-a-half dodge around the curveballs routinely pitched by life, highlighted by Tulip's kooky canine quirks and her master's endless vexation.

Ackerley's wry humor, masterfully captured by Plummer, keeps things chugging along briskly. Also, the film boasts one of the best-ever taglines: "Sometimes love really is a bitch." Get it… female Alsatian? Bitch? Jeesh, tough crowd.

Anyway trust me when I tell you this one's a charmer. Look for August 10.