Vancouver: Production begins July 12 on what is being called a turning point in the history of Shavick Entertainment, a veteran service-production provider in Vancouver.

Crash & Byrnes – an mow/pilot developed and produced in-house by Shavick’s president Shawn Williamson – is symbolic of the company’s new focus on Canadian production.

Written by and starring Canadian Wolf Larson (Tarzan), Crash & Byrnes has a decidedly American feel in order to appeal to a u.s. syndicator or network willing to take the show to series.

But at press time, there was only European and Shavick money in the $2-million show, with Regent Entertainment acting as distributor. It’s a risk, Williamson admits, but one that has paid off for producers like Vancouver’s Larry Sugar and others who produced pilots before getting a u.s. sale.

In Crash & Byrnes, Larson stars as a drug enforcement agent who is forced to team up with a cia agent to stop a terrorist attack on a North American city. Production wraps Aug. 5.

According to Williamson – who, after producing work such as Tail Lights Fade and Drive, She Said, joined Shavick with the mandate to do more Canadian production – says Shavick can do up to 10 Canadian productions per year with budgets of up to $2 million each.

Longtime Shavick partners Regent and Saban Entertainment, along with new partner Team Entertainment, are onside to deal with the distribution, he adds.

Consequently, Shavick is hunting for Canadian scripts with suspense or courtroom themes, says Williamson. And they needn’t be as overtly commercial as Crash & Byrnes, he adds.

The next Canadian show will be a psychological thriller, Lucky Shot, about the disintegration of a hunting party after a park ranger is believed to be shot. Regent will likely handle sales.

Before it started producing its own shows, Shavick funded the low-budget Canadian art-house feature A Girl is A Girl by Angus Fraser and Reg Harkema, and is acting as distributor.

Shavick, meanwhile, will keep up its service work, having done three u.s. mows this year already.

* V-avoom

Badry Moujais – the brains behind one-time wtn entertainment series Metro Cafe – is back with a new variety series called v for ctv.

Shot in the penthouse studio at vtv’s downtown Vancouver studio, v (for Vancouver and Variety) is being touted as a redefinition of the variety genre. Each one-hour will brim with top-40 musical acts, fashion shows, celebrity djs, standup comedy, improvisation, go-go girls and boys and a live studio audience of 150, all standing and, presumably, grooving.

Geared for an 18-34 demographic, v is a cross between MuchMusic’s Electric Circus and Fox’s In Living Color and is striving to be edgy and racy.

Hosting duties fall to Vancouver comedian Roman Danylo, former Grizzlies cheerleader Joanna Reid and Vancouver-based recording artist Steve Best.

Eighteen episodes are on order, says Moujais, who is producing the series under his Pax Entertainment banner, which is a division of Badry Moujais Communications.

Tapings began June 26 and 27 and continue every Saturday and Sunday until Aug. 15.

* Cold sweat

Speculators says it’s a do or die year for the Vancouver cop series Cold Squad. Production on the third season of 13 episodes started July 5 and for the third season in a row the show is being completely remade.

In a bid for stronger ratings, the show’s producers, Vancouver-based Keatley MacLeod and Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis, are starting to cater to the younger audience. Cold Squad gets to move upstairs, for instance, and away from the boiler room. Julie Stewart is back as Detective Ali McCormick. But veteran detective Tony Logozzo (Michael Hogan) is out of the show in episode two because of his, well, maturity. The Inspector Ross character is also out because actor Peter Wingfield is back in the u.k.

The sets have been remade to include a police pub. Producer Matt MacLeod promises the show will be ‘hot,’ with stronger visuals and continuing storylines that go ‘behind the badge.’

Curious, however, in a strategy to appeal to younger viewers is the elimination of the two youthful stars from season two: Lori Triolo, who is in States, and Bob Frazier, who just didn’t get a job this year.

Among the newcomers to the cast this season are Stephen McHattie (Coscorella), Tamara Craig-Thomas (Kellander) and Gregory Calpakis (Nicco).

* U.S. and us

Production continues in b.c.’s billion-dollar year. Pushing the tallies are new American and Canadian productions.

A Feeling Called Glory is a Canadian 30-minute short feature with young Canadian actors Shauna Kain and Colleen Rennison starring in a story about the friendship of two girls, one with a terminal illness. The project, directed by Vancouver casting director Coreen Mayrs, will air on ctv and Vision tv and got its start by winning the Kodak Canada Vision Award. The seven-day shoot ended Canada Day.

The Proposal is a small-budget u.s. indie with Jennifer Esposito (Summer of Sam) and Peter Coyote in the leads. The thriller is about an undercover cop who has to find a woman to play his wife for a week while he investigates the mob. Proposal has a production schedule that runs July 19 to Aug. 13.

Shiny New Enemies – with Jeff Goldblum, Salma Hayek and David Hyde Pierce among others in an ensemble cast – is another u.s. indie feature. Described as a romantic heist storyline, Enemies is about a hapless barber whose life takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally ends up in possession of stolen treasure trove of ancient coins. Production wraps in mid-August.

Finally, Cabin by the Lake is a USA Network mow about a mystery writer who, in order to research his latest book about a man who drowns teenage girls, actually commits the murders. The production, with Judd Nelson in the lead, shoots from July 13 to Aug. 10.

* Learning curve

British Columbia Film has announced the nine interns who are taking advantage of the funding agency’s training and skills development fund in 1999.

Michelle Bjornson of Vancouver will work with producer Ogden Gavanski on the cbc series Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy. Andrea Goodey of Vancouver will also be a producer intern, but hers is with Arvi Liimatainen on the cbc feature Marine Life.

Writer interns include: Sara Graefe of Vancouver, who will work with story editor Ian Weir on cbc series Edgemont Road; Frank Borg of Vancouver, who will work with writer Chris Haddock on cbc series DaVinci’s Inquest; Katrina Barton of Vancouver, who will work with Stacey Kaser on Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy; and, Brian Watson of Richmond, who will work with Phil Savath and Susan Duligal on the cbc series These Arms of Mine.

Sheila Jordan of Pender Island will develop her screenplay That Summer with mentor Sharon Riis, and entertainment journalist Ken Eisner will develop his screenplay Till Death Do Us Part with Alan Difiore. The lone distribution intern, Patrick Corbett, will work with Les Harris at Canamedia Productions.

In June, meanwhile, the province opened 2,300 new training and apprenticeship spaces for trades and occupations, including film.

BC Film-sponsored interns work for up to 20 weeks with their mentors.

* Database detour

Please take note. My phone and fax numbers are changing, but my address remains the same.

Effectively immediately, call me at (604) 647-6477 or fax to me at (604) 647-6466. Letters come to #101-1161 Melville Street, Vancouver, b.c. V6E 2X7 and e-mail is still iedwards@istar.ca.