Vancouver: Not a crew is to be had in Vancouver as the West Coast enjoys an Indian summer of production bolstered by the deflated looney.

Among the new shows is Robert Altman’s mow/pilot Killer App, which shoots until Oct. 7 for 20th Century Fox. The telepic, written by Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame, is about a small startup high-tech company facing the ruthless ways of a much larger competitor.

Hide and Seek (Fox Family Channel), the 10th mow of the calendar year for Vancouver’s Shavick Entertainment, shoots until Oct. 16. Tim Matheson, Carol Alt and newcomer Ryan DeBoer star in the comedy adventure about a down-and-out cop who has to protect a street kid who witnessed a mob hit.

It is scheduled to air Nov. 22.

Leslie Nielsen is again in town, but he’s taking a break from spoof movies to do a plain old comedy, cowritten by Billy Bob Thornton.

Camouflage is a low-budget Canadian feature backed by l.a.-based Interlight Pictures that costars local acting success Lochlyn Munro (Dead Man on Campus). The film is about a couple of detectives who end up in a town ‘where nothing is what it seems.’ Production is scheduled to run mid-October to Nov. 27.

The two camera units of nbc miniseries Atomic Train continue production until Dec. 11. Rob Lowe stars in the four-hour show about the effects of a nuclear disaster.

Vancouver’s Pacific Motion Pictures is rolling over crew from production on Wes Craven’s mow Don’t Look Down to begin production on Reaper, apparently the first mow by Turner Broadcasting as an originating producer. Production is scheduled to wrap on Nov. 3 on the story about a deadly computer virus.

Disney Channel’s So Weird, a kids’ sci-fi series overseen by Larry Sugar of Vidatron Entertainment, continues shooting until Dec. 17.

And the cbc’s young children’s series Scoop and Doozie (Queen Bee Productions) shoots for the month of October with actors Jim Rankin, Norman Foote and Christine Lippa.

*Local features squeeze in

It sure is busy, but the independent producers are managing to find crew and locations.

Rollercoaster, written and directed by Canadian Film Centre graduate Scott Smith, completes a 22-day shoot Oct. 24. A drama about five emotionally strained teens who break into an abandoned amusement park (the Pacific National Exhibition), the film stars a cast of locals: Brendan Fletcher (Little Criminals), David Lovgren (Live Bait) and newer talent Kett Turton, Chrystal Buble, Sean Aimsing and Brent Glenen.

According to coproducer Connie Dophin, TMN-The Movie Network has the first window, while cbc will carry the film’s second broadcast. She expects the film to be ready for the 1999 Toronto and Vancouver festivals, where she hopes to secure a distributor.

Small-budget vampire-action feature Jenny Jacks (Grave Images Productions) wraps Oct. 13 after six weeks of self-financed camera work.

This is a first feature for writer/producer/director Vince D’Amato and coproducers Peter Speers and Nicki Hancock. The cast includes locals Ligaya Allmer, Sarah Hawkings, Jason Strouts, Chas Harrison and Tarja Ridgewell.

*Other B.C. production notes

Fred Penner hosts six half-hours called The Simple Way (Deep Cove Creative) for Vision tv. The series, which premiered Oct. 6, showcases ‘people who have liberated themselves from our consumer society.’ That means divesting, cutting up credit cards, carpooling, etc. The series is produced by Patti Poskitt and written by Joyce Thierry.

* Stop-motion animated Twisteeria (Scintilla Entertainment) gets its pilot on the air Oct. 30 and 31 on ytv. The Vancouver-made kids’ show is about a human character who gets lost in a world of talking animals, singing gargoyles and other oddities.

Voices have been provided by KOKO Productions of Vancouver and special effects are supplied by Northwest Imaging & FX, also of Vancouver.

* Victoria’s Pan Productions will travel to South Africa Oct. 25 to Nov. 5 to shoot a one-hour special starring local comedian Johnny ‘Bagpipes’ Johnston for The Comedy Network. Stand Up Safari will blend stand-up and sketch comedy shot in the wilds of southern Africa. Last year, Pan produced a documentary called Crazy Canucks for cbc’s Life and Times.

* Take Part Productions of North Vancouver launched its latest weekly kids’ series on ytv Sept. 19 at 6 a.m. Surf’s Up! Let’s Cook! is called the first standalone television cooking show for children in North America.

* Micro-budget horror indie The Dead of Night is in mixing after three years of production. Self-financed by actor-producer David Fredericks, the film is about a corrupt town sheriff who has to face all the dead women who return to exact revenge for his part in their deaths.

It features the directing work of Michael Pollard, prosthetics of Tibor Farkas, physical effects of Eric Vybra, camera work of Michael Balfry and editing of Brad and Dein Nuber.

*Mooving on up

Advance Image Communications – which is the parent company of AIC Productions and Big Red Barn Post – is the only production industry company listed among b.c.’s fastest growing companies in weekly publication Business in Vancouver. aic is ranked 14th based on 1,023% growth in revenues between 1993 and 1997.

Delta-based aic operates out of a renovated dairy barn and focuses on broadcast and corporate video production and post-production. It’s owned by Ken Malenstyn and Andrea Klipp and employs six full-time employees.

*Young at heart

The organizers of Reel to Real, a youth-oriented film festival in Vancouver March 3-6, are looking for entries by Nov. 6.

Features, shorts, documentaries, experimental films and animation completed after January 1996 and aimed at kids aged six-up and 13-up are eligible. Handling fees apply: $25 for up to 60-minute preview tapes, $35 for 60-plus minutes.

For information, call artistic director Venay Felton at (604) 224-6162.

*Fair is fair

Fixing an omission in my Aug. 24 column: though it is officially listed on the Gemini nomination list as an Ontario production, Quake Hunters, a contender for the best Science, Technology, Nature and Environment Documentary Program – is b.c.-made, says writer/ director/narrator Jerry Thompson of Raincoast Storylines in Halfmoon Bay, b.c.

Created by nominated producer Terence McKeown of Richmond for cbc’s Witness documentary strand, Quake Hunters is about the looming ‘mega-thrust earthquake’ overdue in Vancouver.