Vancouver: The B.C. Film Commission’s list, at press time, was looking a wee bit thin – given that we are supposed to be in the peak of the production season.

The June 11 roster of productions lists 12 features such as I, Robot and Riddick, one miniseries (10.5), three MOWs, including Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl, and eight series, among them the surprise seventh season of CTV’s Cold Squad. That’s 24 titles at a time when Vancouver is usually hosting upwards of 40 titles.

So, what’s going on? Features are stronger than usual, but television is much weaker – a victim of the reality television trends in the U.S. and, to a lesser degree, the strengthening Canadian dollar.

As one industry watcher puts it, U.S. television makers don’t need a lot of excuses to stay at home and a weaker U.S. dollar exchange rate might be enough to stay put.

With work sitting in the wings, however, a future film list promises to be a bit more robust.

Tru Calling, written by Jon Harmon Feldman (American Dreams, Dawson’s Creek) and directed by Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American) maintains Vancouver as the weird show capital of the world.

In the Fox Television series, Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) plays a morgue attendant who has the power to relive the previous day for ‘clients’ who wrongly end up on the slab. Canadian A.J. Cook (Final Destination 2) is among the costars. Production begins this summer.

Showtime’s The L Word (formerly Earthlings) is a lesbian series in production with Rose Lam’s Coast Mountain Films until Sept. 22.

Meanwhile, Kingdom Hospital is a Stephen King adaptation of Lars von Trier’s strange Danish television miniseries called The Kingdom, about a hospital built atop a graveyard. Production of the series begins in August for Sony and ABC.

Jake 2.0 is a Viacom series that plays like Six Million Dollar Man meets Spider-Man. An aspiring astronaut played by Christopher Gorham (Popular) is infected with ‘nanobots’ and becomes a superhero. Local actress Keegan Connor Tracy (Beggars and Choosers) costars. Production runs July to December.

The sixth season of Da Vinci’s Inquest for CBC will add some volume along with the third season of Smallville. A second season of CHUM-sponsored Alienated (Brightlight Pictures) made it through the CTF funding rounds before its first season begins airing on SPACE: The Imagination Station in July and will go into production in September.

Weather channel

One of the new features on the list is Lightning: Bolts of Destruction, a low-budget, Canadian-content feature film produced by Legacy Filmworks chief Deboragh Gabler of Vancouver.

Joanna Pacula (Warrior Angels) plays a meteorologist battling science and politics to deal with the growing global threat of violent lightening storms. Brenton Spencer (Andromeda) is the director and Ellen Dubin (A Wrinkle in Time) is a costar.

Critical Mass Releasing is handling Canadian sales and has sold the feature to Movie Central. Porchlight Entertainment, handling foreign distribution, has presold the feature to Japan (New Select), Germany (Tele-Munchen), France (TF1), Spain (Sivsa) and Turkey (Hunter). PAX TV will air the film in the U.S.

Lightning wrapped almost three weeks of production June 21.

Meanwhile, Gabler added some rare trophies to her mantel – rare for a Vancouver producer, that is. The Showtime MOW Bang, Bang, You’re Dead – an essay on high school shootings coproduced by Gabler in Vancouver – recently won four Daytime Emmys including outstanding children’s special and the George F. Peabody Award.

Reel opportunity

Production begins in September on Vancouver Island for Lies Like Truth, winner of the Reel Edge Project sponsored by Victoria’s CHUM-owned The New VI.

Lies Like Truth, produced by Victoria-based Gumboot Productions for less than $1 million, beat out 23 other submissions for the chance at life. Produced by Peter Campbell, written by Brian Paisley and directed by Michael Bateman, the MOW is a suspense drama about a burnt-out executive caught in a web of ‘lust, deceit, and murder.’

‘The Reel Edge drew a very high caliber of submissions,’ says Barry Dodd, The New VI’s director of programming and independent production. ‘Our team was particularly intrigued with Lies Like Truth for a long list of reasons, including its strong script, its top-notch creative team, and its jazz-fusion soundtrack by internationally renowned local musicians.’

A second script, Tough City, has been provisionally greenlit, pending script revision. It is produced by Elizabeth Yake (True West Films), directed by Brian Nash and written by Grant Shilling.

Concurrent with the project, The New VI will produce Good to Go, a 13-part documentary that will follow the entire Reel Edge process from pitch to screen. Good to Go, a coproduction of Pan Video and Chiaro Productions, began shooting in May as eight short-listed production teams pitched their projects for final consideration.

Shoveling it

I Dig BC, a half-hour mockumentary special for CBC British Columbia, is set 400 years in the future when the lost culture of British Columbia is discovered under West Edmonton Mall (which has grown to the Pacific Ocean).

Based on a concept by Vancouver writer Ian Boothby, Dig was produced by Edward Kay (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) and Jordan Kawchuck (ZeD). Through a series of sketches, historical ‘re-enactors’ from the 25th century play the roles of modern-day British Columbians (like nude bicycle protestors and yuppies who pay $99 for a loaf of bread).

I Dig BC is tentatively scheduled to air on CBC later this month.

Another gig in its pocket

Vaancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment has scored another service animation gig – this one at the Licensing 2003 International Show.

The CGI specialist will produce Monster in My Pocket, a property owned by Peak Entertainment Holdings of the U.K.

The deal means Mainframe will produce 26 half-hours about miniature monsters like Medusa and Frankenstein and handle Canadian merchandising and TV distribution.

Pilot episodes will be previewed at MIPCOM in October. Target market: kids aged six to 11.

Bushwhacked

Apparently Slice o’ Life, the ABC comedy pilot with Janeane Garofalo as a TV producer, is dead. Reports suggest Garofalo’s anti-President George Bush sentiments were enough to scuttle the show, which promised to bring the first U.S.-style, three-camera sitcom format to Vancouver.