Vancouver: Now that pilot season is done and the manufacturing of film and television productions is proceeding, jockeying for locales has begun in earnest with nearly 30 projects currently scouting the West Coast as a production base. The genres are split evenly between features, mows and series.

Jessica Fletcher (aka Angela Lansbury) may sleuth in Victoria in an mow version of Murder She Wrote. The live-action feature film adaptation of Josey and the Pussycats may claw its way into the busy Vancouver locations. The Master of Horror and Suspense, a Jim Henson Company pilot shot here last year for nbc, may yet see the light of series production under the new title The Fearing Mind.

And the boy-band mow 2Gether, the first in a multi-picture tv movie deal between International Keystone and bmtv, may evolve into a series.

Mark DesRochers, b.c.’s film commissioner, says he can’t confirm how many of the proposed projects will actually materialize as work for local crews, but ‘there is budgeting going on right, left and centre.’

He adds that production for the first quarter is up 20% over the same quarter last year and most stages in the city have productions lined up seven or more deep to claim the spaces. Adding to the volumes are more indigenous titles, u.k. coproductions and a greater number of features.

Other feature film titles include the mgm features Blood and Chocolate and Outlaws.

In other series maybes, it appears that singer Chris Isaac may get a show shot in Vancouver. Other series proposals include the titles Freedom, Myth Quest and Invincible.

mows include the abc/Disney production Miracle Worker.

Hallmark Entertainment and Pacific Motion Pictures could do Snow White this summer as a television event. And Forefront Entertainment plans to produce 13 one-hours of a series called Republic of Nowhere to go with its six additional episodes of successful kids series The Magician’s House, a ctv/bbc Canada/u.k. coproduction.

*Warner x 2, et al

At June 1, meanwhile, about 30 live-action productions were in production or prepping.

Among the features gaining an early foothold in the Vancouver production scene is Fighting Like Cats and Dogs, a Warner Bros. animal feature akin to Babe. Felines and canines star, which accounts for the long production schedule, June 19 to Nov. 7. Voices will be added later.

See Spot Run is a low-budget Warner Bros. feature starring David Arquette as a postal worker who gets caught in a case of mistaken identity and the mob. Production on the comedy, inspired by the likes of Big Daddy and The Water Boy, runs June 26 to Aug. 22.

Meanwhile, independent feature Once Upon a Christmas (aka Santa Baby), produced through Deboragh Gabler’s Legacy Filmworks, stars swimsuit model Kathy Ireland, John Dye (Touched By An Angel) and Andre Carthen (Introducing Dorothy Dandridge) in a story about a family that no longer believes in Santa. St. Nick’s daughter, however, is dispatched to change their minds. Production runs until July 3.

Finally, Steve Zahn (Happy, Texas), Jason Biggs (American Pie) and Amanda Peet (Isn’t She Great) star in Saving Silverman, a Columbia Pictures comedic feature about two friends who conspire to save their buddy from marrying a woman he doesn’t love. Production runs until Aug. 9.

*Gimme five

TV movies are pumping up the volume of production in Vancouver. At least five are in or nearing production:

* First Target, an mow for Columbia TriStar and TBS Superstation, stars Daryl Hannah and Doug Savant (Melrose Place) in a sequel to First Daughter, shot here last year. Hannah plays a secret service agent who protects the president from assassination. Production runs to June 28.

* Love Lesson is a tv movie for cbs starring Patty Duke and Ronny Cox (Perfect Murder, Perfect Town). In production until June 28, the mow is about a wealthy couple in their 50s who are about to literally sail away into retirement when she finds out she’s pregnant.

* cbs is also backing Falling in Love Again, an mow with Valerie Bertinelli in the lead. Production wraps July 7 on the story set in Alaska about children who scheme to get their parents matched up after they separate.

* Back in Black is a Viacom/vhi television movie with Danny Masterson (That ’70s Show) and Erik Palladino (U-571) in the lead roles. The black comedy shoots until June 23.

* Fox Television will air the Regency Entertainment production of Faithful Travelers, which stars Canadian David James Elliott (jag). He also serves as an executive producer on the family drama that is in front of cameras until July 7.

*Art imitates life

The first lesson in creative writing class is ‘Write what you know.’ Bruce Spangler has done just that with his screenwriting and directing debut in Protection, a dramatic feature shot on 16mm in Vancouver in May 1999.

The story chronicles 24 hours in the life of a child protection social worker who investigates the case of two children abused by their heroine-addicted mother. Spangler’s own past as a child protection social worker inspired the story.

According to first-time drama producer Erik Paulsson (who is also a first-time documentary filmmaker with Island of Shadows, a British Columbia leper colony story that aired on vtv and Vision tv in May), the film was shot thanks to a $60,000 Canada Council grant. Another $15,000 got the film to the rough-cut stage when Citytv, TMN-The Movie Network and Superchannel were persuaded to ante up broadcast licence fees. Completion money from Telefilm Canada will assist in blowing up the film to 35mm at Film Opticals in Toronto. The B.C. Arts Council and British Columbia Film also invested in the project.

Overall, Protection has cost $400,000 and about $100,000 is still owing in deferred producer and performer fees.

Nancy Sivak (Dirty) and Jillian Fargey (Daydrift) star in the production that will vie for screen time at the Toronto and Sundance film festivals.

Meanwhile, Paulsson and Spangler will attend the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto in the producer and director categories, respectively. They will work on Spangler’s script about street youth.

*Cable guys

Distributor Dark Horse Entertainment – a Vancouver-based distributor that calls itself Western Canada’s leading cable programming specialist – has picked up a few more properties from Vancouver producers.

The Remittance Men by Patty Poskitt (Deep Cove Creative) for ctv is a one-hour documentary about early-20th century upper-class rogues who left England for the colonies, only to return to defend the empire in World War I.

From variety producer Badry Moujais (Badry Moujais Communications), Dark Horse has acquired the world broadcast rights to a music special featuring the band 3 Deep – a pop group comprising the talents of soap stars Joshua Morrow (The Young and the Restless), Eddie Cibrian (Third Watch, Sunset Beach) and C.J. Huyer.

Dark Horse has also picked up the international distribution rights to the music series v, also produced by Moujais.

Meanwhile, Dark Horse has the international broadcast rights to Where Angels Weep, an hour-long exploration about what heroine does to children. The film, which was a short screen at the 1999 Banff Television Festival and a jury award winner at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival, is by Michael Neitzel (Pacific Film and Video).