Vancouver: Fans of Paul Newman’s 1979 hockey classic Slapshot can stop holding their breath.

Slapshot II Breaking the Ice goes into a month of production at Vancouver rinks March 12. And yes, the notorious Hanson Brothers from the original film return, although 20-odd years older. Other major casting was still underway at press time.

Made for Universal Family and Home Entertainment, the feature is about the Slapshot guys – kind of the Harlem Globetrotters of hockey – who decide they can no longer take being the patsies for whiz-kid hockey players.

Bare-knuckle punches ensue, though given the backer, we assume they’ll be delivered with less vivid language.

Gun play

Liberty Stands Still – a Lions Gate Entertainment feature that promises to raise the hackles of U.S. gun lobbyists – is in production until March 20, with box office powerhouse Wesley Snipes leading the crusade.

Written and directed by Kari Skogland and coproduced by local Ogden Gavanski, Liberty is about a hostage-taking incident involving an arms manufacturer and the debate about the right to bear arms. Linda Fiorentino costars.

One production twist: the shooting schedule is very compressed, leading to speculation that it was an MOW bumped up to a feature or that Snipes and co. are cramming in production before the actors strike.

Stockpiler

Warner Brothers Television, perhaps the busiest big studio in town, is backing at least three series pilots and maybe two features.

A quick week-long shoot will create the presentation pilot of Bad Haircut, involving a boys-coming-of-age storyline.

Frequent Vancouver visitor David Nutter, actually an American who’s forged his producer/director career on Vancouver-made production, is back for a bigger-budget pilot for Smallville. Production runs until the end of the month. Likewise, the WB pilot The Clark Brothers shoots until March 30.

Another pilot not yet official is The Young Person’s Guide to Being A Rock Star.

On the feature side, Warner is planning to do Insomnia and The Apprentice (formerly The Company) with wrap dates before strike dates.

Star crazy

New and renewed production in Vancouver is heavy on the science fiction.

Season five of Stargate SGI started in February and Gene Roddenberry’s space epic Andromeda, starring Kevin Sorbo, starts a second season of production in March. Also this month, Alliance Atlantis is scheduled to start its new Sci-Fi Channel series Anonymous Rex.

You’ve got mail

Young filmmakers otherwise employed by the U.S. service production/commercial production industries in Vancouver have taken a break to make the 15-minute short film Mary Did a Bad Bad Thing.

In the twist-filled story, a woman begins an e-mail affair with a man who turns out to be her husband – or is he?

Brent Crowell, an AD with Level Nine and Outer Limits, is ante-ing up $26,000 to be executive producer and director. No funding agencies are aboard (indicating somewhat how much the service industry is paying people).

Jennifer Snyder, late of British Columbia Film, is a coproducer, as is commercial production manager Inge Bailey.

Brenda Campbell (First Wave) and Liam Ranger (Level Nine) are the leads for the production, which is scheduled for a whirlwind two-day shoot.

Crowell will send the finished product to the festivals, and hopes it will be the germ for a feature film.

You’ve got Greenmail

After struggling with their first indie production – the lust-and-revenge feature The Falling from 1998 – local producers Greg Malcolm and Vicki Sotheran of Sodona Entertainment have been busy with service production.

Currently, they are doing their second production in six months for distribution partners Promark of L.A. and Das Werks of Frankfurt.

Greenmail is the action story of an eco-terrorist that must be stopped by the ATF in the U.S. It stars Stephen Baldwin, Tom Skerritt and Kelly Rowan (Scorn). The feature is written by Vancouverite Raul Sanchez Inglis, who also wrote and directed The Falling. Production continues to March 17.

Last fall, Sodona oversaw production of The Shipment, a comedy about Mafia types smuggling Viagra from Mexico to the U.S., in Vancouver and Osoyoos in the B.C. interior. Paul Rodriguez, Matthew Modine and Elizabeth Berkely lead the cast.

For distributor World International Network in L.A. in 1999, Sodona was the service producer for Touched by a Killer (formerly Once in a Blue Moon) and Southern Cross, two features that were ultimately released on video and cable TV.

The Falling has just sold its video rights through Panorama Entertainment of L.A., which holds the U.S. rights to the film.

Time for MOWs

A Wrinkle in Time is a Miramax/Disney production for ABC. No cast was signed at press time for the four-hour miniseries based on the classic Madeline L’Engle children’s time-travel story. Production is scheduled to run in Vancouver March 31 to June 30.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver office of Dufferin Gate is producing the Showtime MOW I was a Teenage Faust, a parody based on Faust in the ‘careful-what-you-wish-for’ vein. Robert Townsend stars in the production that runs to March 24.

And The Wedding Dress is a CBS MOW in production until March 28.

Angel sent

Cinemark’s Tinseltown theatre in Vancouver is continuing its role as exhibition angel for Vancouver-made features. A Girl is a Girl, Rollercoaster, NOROC and Stuff have all hit the big commercial screen at Tinseltown since last fall. The Genie Award-winning My Father’s Angel, an ethnic conflict story by Davor Marjanovic, opened for its run Feb. 23.

Unlike the local indie films that preceded it, Angel has representation: Domino Film and Television International in Montreal. *