Vancouver: The killer behind the horrific b.c. news headlines has contributed interviews, script analysis and his own psychological profiles to the development of Scorn, a new cbc mow by producer Chris Bruyere and director Sturla Gunnarsson.

Darren Huenemann, who arranged the assassination of his mother and grandmother, is the subject of the film that will attempt to ‘get into the head’ of an 18-year-old who can convince his friends to commit murder, says Bruyere.

Edmonton actor Eric Johnson (Legends of the Fall, Heart of the Sun) won the lead role in the Vancouver production that began Oct. 4 and wraps Nov. 5.

Bruyere’s company Face-to-Face Films leads a consortium of four production companies – including Gunnarsson’s Eurasia Motion Pictures, Kinetic Productions and Barna-Alper Productions – creating the $3.25-million film, which will be shot on 35mm in the hopes that it might get a big-screen release.

Laszlo Barna of Toronto’s Barna-Alper acts as co-executive producer. Alliance Atlantis is distributing.

*Marine Life swims ashore

Production wraps Oct. 13 on Marine Life, a feature film based on the acclaimed book of stories by Vancouver writer (and Gemini nominee) Linda Svendsen.

The screen adaptation, starring Cybill Shepperd, focuses on the character of June – a middle-aged lounge singer and mother – and her relationships with her younger lover and her precocious daughter. Peter Outerbridge and Alexandra Purvis costar and Anne Wheeler is directing.

Vancouver’s Crescent Entertainment has driven the project and is coproducing with Decode Entertainment and StromHaus. Alliance Atlantis and Crescent Releasing share distribution.

Canadian television rights have been prebought by cbc.

*Skin condition

Comforting Skin, an internationally flavored feature by local producers Michael Bafaro and Justin James and writer/director Derek Franson, shoots through October.

Featuring acclaimed French actress Clotilde Courau and Australian actor Daniel Lapaine (Muriel’s Wedding, Double Jeopardy) in the lead roles, the edgy, psychological drama involves a woman who wills her tattoo to life.

According to Bafaro, the privately financed feature has a budget of less than $3 million (which is Titanic in comparison to most local, independently financed features in Vancouver). No distributors are attached, but Artisan is interested, he adds.

*Get budget breaks

Meanwhile, the latest big American film to travel north to take advantage of the Canadian dollar and film industry tax breaks is Get Carter, the second Sylvester Stallone movie of the calendar year.

In the feature made for Warner Bros., a gangster investigates his brother’s murder. Production runs October through December.

*Da Vinci invests

Chris Haddock may have been surprised that his cbc series Da Vinci’s Inquest was shut out of the director’s category at the upcoming Gemini Awards, but that hasn’t stopped him from putting time and effort into new directing talent.

For the second season of the critically acclaimed series, Haddock has promoted dops and ads to the director’s chair to expand their skills. Among them: photographers David Frazee and AJ Vesak – who have been integral to the look of the show – have piloted two episodes, while producer Tom Braidwood has codirected an episode with Haddock and will do another by himself later this season. Assistant director Lee Knippelberg is another new director getting his feet wet with the coroner series.

‘These guys have the talent for directing,’ says Haddock, who is committed to using local talent. ‘They’ve demonstrated it through their work with the show.’

As for the second season, Haddock is divulging little about the storyline, however, it is influenced by local headlines about 30 missing prostitutes.

The series will also loose a major character.

*One up on Conrad

Production is underway on Beaverbrook, a one-hour documentary for ctv about how Canadian Max Aitken shot his way into the highest ranks of British society. As Lord Beaverbrook, he was a dominant character in 20th century politics and media.

A coproduction of the National Film Board’s Pacific Centre and Vancouver’s International Documentary Television, Beaverbrook shot footage in Canada in September before moving to England to shoot in October. Producers Selwyn Jacob for the nfb and Robert Duncan and Barbara Shearer for idt will deliver the project next spring.

Stallone was last in Vancouver for Detox.

*You kill me, you really kill me!

Vancouver’s Shavick Entertainment, service producer for Actress, the first mow greenlit by year-old u.s. specialty E! Entertainment Television, says Actress is a wry comedy about the race for the best actress Oscar and one actress who literally kills to win it.

The mow, which is scheduled to air after the Oscar telecast next year, is based on the novel by John Kane and will feature cameo appearances from Hollywood celebrities and power players. Thomas Calabro (Melrose Place), Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale), Maria Conchita Alonzo (Caught), Jaime Pressly (Can’t Hardly Wait) and Rachel Hunter (A Little Harmless Sex) star.

Production runs until Oct. 6.

Other service jobs include Frankie & Hazel, an mow by Dufferin Gate for Showtime, and Mermaid, produced by Larry Sugar, also for Showtime.

Frankie & Hazel stars Joan Plowright in a story about a young girl who is torn between being a ballerina or a baseball player. Actor JoBeth Williams directs.

Production runs to Oct. 21.

Mermaid is based on a true story about a young girl who, while struggling with the loss of her father, pins a letter to a mermaid balloon to send it up to heaven. The letter is found in Prince Edward Island by another family, which forms a bond with the grieving youngster.

Ellen Burstyn stars and production wraps Oct. 5.