Vancouver: Vancouver’s Pacific Motion Pictures’ latest producing effort was on the big screen Aug. 6 at a special sneak preview of Masterminds. The feature, with Patrick Stewart as the terrorist, was executive produced by Matthew O’Connor of pmp for distributor Columbia/Sony/TriStar and gets wide release Aug. 22.

O’Connor is pained to explain that, no, this isn’t just another Vancouver service deal.

pmp, he says, has done about 30 productions that have involved his company’s decision-making in casting, directing, cutting, music, effects and marketing. Yes, he adds, pmp gets ‘whopping fees’ but also has undisclosed profit participation.

O’Connor, long a crusader of better definitions of the term ‘Vancouver service producer,’ maintains that the confusion about what pmp d’es compared to what a true line producer d’es would never happen in l.a. pmp, he stresses, is more than just a mechanical service provider and is integral to the above-the-line strategies.

As for the film that tells the story of a terrorist who takes a school hostage, everything but the sound was done in Vancouver.

In other pmp news, the production company’s retelling of Truman Capote’s classic In Cold Blood has been nominated for two Emmy Awards in the outstanding miniseries or special category and picture editing for a miniseries or special. pmp partner Tom Rowe produced it in conjunction with Hallmark Entertainment. Jonathan Kaplan directed and Anthony Edwards, Eric Roberts and Sam Neill starred. It aired on cbs.

Awards are handed out in l.a. Sept. 14.

-Action Jackson

The bctv-Baton rumble continues. bctv’s chief assignment editor Clive Jackson has been scooped by the newsroom at Vancouver Television to be managing editor of news. The move, apparently, has left bctv staffers slack-jawed and wondering what else can possibly happen to their operation that has seen 10 layoffs and terminations (including high-profile sports anchors) since bctv and wic started its restructuring a few months ago.

Jackson takes on his new job Aug. 11.

In other vtv news, print journalist Robert Mason Lee will host a new, half-hour national current affairs show beginning in September. The untitled program is produced by local news veteran Cameron Bell from Baton’s new downtown digs.

-Three’s a charm

Mainframe has signed a deal to produce and distribute another animated series. mdk, which is based on the hot pc game of the same name, will be available for worldwide distribution in the fall of 1998. The 3D game features a young hero and his dog battling evil robots trying to take over a futurist Earth.

Mainframe is known for its animated shows ReBoot and Beasties.

-Postcards from the edge

The sci-fi series Sliders is sliding back to Vancouver whence it sprang four years ago for Fox. This time, the USA Network, owner of the Sci-Fi Channel, has pulled the series about travelers who ‘slide’ between dimensions from the brink and will bring it back here for another season and production of enough episodes to put it over the magic 100-mark for syndication.

Paramount show Three begins Aug. 18. It’s about three sophisticated criminals who become special agents to fight crime.

nbc series Sleepwalkers, the first time in recent memory that a major u.s. network has sponsored episodic television here, also begins Aug. 18. Hometowner Bruce Greenwood (Nowhere Man) stars in the series about dream analyzers.

Suspense-thriller Outrage, an mow for abc, shoots until Aug. 29 with Rob Lowe and Jennifer Grey in the leads.

And puppet master Shari Lewis executive produces The Charlie Horse Music Pizza series for kids that is in production until Oct. 22. Dom Deluise helps out.

-Postcards from home

Baton’s new series Eyes of a Cowboy shot the pilot episode between July 30 and Aug. 8. Produced by Peter Graham in interior town Ashcroft, b.c. (which means he gets more B.C. Film money than producers in the Lower Mainland), the light drama is about a time-traveling, modern-day cowboy.

A producers cut is expected by the end of August when a decision to develop the rest of the series will be made. The pilot ­ written by John Gray and starring Donnelly Rhodes and Christiane Hirt ­ airs across the Baton system Sept. 27.

Preproduction for a new, eclectic series called Rock & Roll Recipes has begun for producers Peter Carr of Vancouver and Robert Appelby of Toronto.

The pilot ­ merging fine cooking, interviews with and performances by rock stars and travel ­ will be shot in Toronto and Luxembourg and cut by Sept. 2 in time for the CAB Broadcast Exhibition in Toronto. Distribution is still up for grabs.

Nick Oldland’s documentary Mudslide premiered July 29 in Vancouver. The show about the Canadian experience of tree planting will debut on the Knowledge Network this fall.

Homegrown feature The Safari Club continues shooting in Abbotsford until Aug. 31. The project by producers Terry McLennan and Joseph Schur is a $500,000 film about a group of socialites who gather every year to hunt society’s (human) scourges.

Local feature Wounded, a thriller by Keystone and Republic Pictures, will screen at the Montreal World Film Festival (Aug. 22 to Sept. 2) in the Panorama Canada section.

On the acting front, William Sasso has gone mad from Madison. Sasso stars as comedian-in-the-making Derek in the teen series Madison. With a new three-year contract in l.a., he’ll appear as a series regular on madtv, Fox’s sketch comedy show, this fall.

-Acme Prop Shop

The Alberta exodus is real, at least on the supplier side. Acme Prop Shop has opened up in Vancouver after having an antique rental company to the stars in Edmonton. ‘But there’s not much doin’ in Alberta right now,’ says company president Judie Dahl, who is in partnership with her sister Joan Swirhun, the original proprietor of Prairie Rose Antiques. Dahl cites the demise of the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation as a major reason for the defection to the West Coast.

In 8,000 square feet near The Bridge Studios in Burnaby, Acme Prop offers antiques and period props ­ ‘from classy to cheesy.’ The inventory is on database.

Having opened in July, Acme Prop has begun working with Vancouver Television and Dead Man’s Gun, says Dahl.