Vancouver: After spending five weeks immersed in the world of a punk rock band on the road for one last hurrah for his latest feature film, Hard Core Logo, director Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Roadkill) must have gotten caught up in the bad boy spirit.

Following a rather boisterous wrap party late last month up in Cache Creek, that some locals apparently found a tad too lively, the crew awoke to discover one of their vans had been sabotaged – when a driver headed down the road, all the wheels mysteriously fell off. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Needless to say, that prank didn’t sit too well with the crew, so upon heading out of town someone decided to leave a farewell message in the form of a revised highway sign that read ‘Gash Creek.’

Unfortunately, says producer Christine Haebler, the entire incident blew out of proportion, and now McDonald is slated to go before the courts on a charge of defacing municipal property. Hmmm, is artistic licence a valid defense?

On a lighter note, Haebler, who spent the last 10 years cashing in on American service productions in Vancouver, is now a zealous convert to the life of an indigenous producer, scraping budgets together notwithstanding.

‘The cast was outrageous and the crew was superb. Bruce was brilliant,’ she says. ‘It was controlled mayhem every single moment. I looked forward to going to work every day like never before.’

Reg Harkema has begun editing the film, with post and completion expected by next spring.

The Suspect

Vancouver producer Nick Orchard’s production of The Suspect, a feature film being coproduced by Orchard and Rick Drew’s Zeitgeist Productions and Portman Productions of London, Eng., is moving full-steam ahead.

Actor Jack Lemmon has expressed interest in doing the film. And hot-shot production designer John Willett (Mississippi Burning, The Firm, Road To Wellville) has signed on the suspense thriller and is already scouting locations up in Gibsons while casting director Stuart Aikins hunts down the rest of the talent.

Orchard says so far the crew is shaping up to look like an alumni meeting of the old Beachcombers series, which Orchard produced and was filmed in Gibsons many moons ago.

British director Chris Menaul of Prime Suspect fame and Merchant Ivory’s latest, Feast of July, will take the helm when filming begins in May ’96.

Scratch and sniff

According to the B.C. Film Commission, the major studios have been sniffing around Vancouver with big-budget features and miniseries in tow once again.

Now that the first round of the B.C. Labour Relation Board’s hearings on Section 41 have resulted in the recognition of the British Columbia & Yukon Council of Film Unions as the sole bargaining agent for film production (over a yet-to-be-determined budget level), the studios appear encouraged that the end of Vancouver’s labor woes may indeed be in sight.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the lrb can get actra and the ubcp to settle their long-standing dispute over jurisdiction, or at least agree to binding arbitration.

Apparently, the council isn’t sitting around waiting for its next date to show up. Instead, they’ve already planned a junket to l.a. this month to spread the good news in anticipation of a bountiful new year.

Live to tell the tale

Edmonton-based filmmaker Joe Viszmeg was in Vancouver last month after completing his moving autobiographical documentary, In My Own Time: Diary of a Cancer Patient.

In 1991, Viszmeg was diagnosed with a rare form of adrenal cancer, which was rapidly spreading to other organs. The doctors pronounced him terminally ill with barely a year to live. Four years later, Viszmeg is still very much alive. In fact, he’s happily remarried with a young child and an irrepressible zest for life.

Says Viszmeg: ‘This is the first happy cancer film you’ve ever seen.’

Not long after his diagnosis, with no time to waste, Viszmeg began scrounging for equipment, film and favors to document his experiences with the disease.

‘I needed to express my changing reality, to tell my story. The whole process was very therapeutic,’ he says.

‘It’s certainly not a medical film,’ says Viszmeg. ‘In fact, I think it’s even entertaining and light. I think one of the most important aspects of the healing process is to get past other people’s guilt, fears and pity and get on with the business at hand – survival and an enhanced appreciation of life.’

Produced by Jerry Krepakevich and Graydon McCrea in association with the National Film Board and Viszmeg, the film was shot by Peter Wunstorf (Double Happiness, The Grocer’s Wife) and edited by Dominique Fortin of Montreal.

It is a compelling examination of one man’s journey through pain, hope, fear, despair, humor, determination and courage to find the power of healing that lies within us all.

Scheduled to air on cbc’s Witness series on Dec. 12, In My Own Time has been selected as one of five films out of a field of more than 60 produced by the nfb this year to make the journey to the Berlin Film Festival in early ’96. Salud!

The young and the restless

Never one to sit still for long, when director Gavin Wilding got the bad news that production on his first big feature film, The Intruder, had been bumped back indefinitely due to casting problems – first Elizabeth Hurley (Hugh Grant’s squeeze), then Famka Janssen (who put the squeeze on James Bond) bowed out of the starring role – he just pulled out another script and got down to business.

So on Dec. 3, Wilding began production on his low-budget suspense drama Listen. Scripted by local writing team Michael Bafara and Jonas Quastel (Crackerjack), it’s about a very ’90s love triangle and is described as Fatal Attraction with a twist.

Diane Patrick O’Connor likely won’t be sending out any Christmas cards this year – she’s pulling double-duty as producer/production manager on the film, which wraps just four days before Christmas.

Devin International of l.a. has picked up u.s. distribution rights.

Canadian rights are still up for grabs.