Vancouver: After a slow start early this year, the film and television production sector in Vancouver is showing better signs of health – at least volume-wise. More than 30 productions are either in prep or in production, according to the B.C. Film Commission’s list, including a couple of ‘serious’ dramas with ‘serious’ actors.

Two for the Money stars Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo in story about a former football star who falls into sports gambling, working for one of the biggest bookies. Production on the US$20-million Morgan Creek Productions shoot runs Aug. 30 to Oct. 20 in Vancouver. D.J. Caruso (Taking Lives) directs.

Meanwhile, Never Was begins production Sept. 7 for almost seven weeks. Ian McKellen, Aaron Eckhart, Brittany Murphy, Nick Nolte and Alan Cumming star in the ensemble cast in the story about a man who works in a mental institution where his novelist father and a mysterious schizophrenic man reside. Writer/director is Joshua Michael Stern (Amityville: Dollhouse).

Vancouver-based producer Deboragh Gabler of Legacy Filmworks oversees production with Greg Shapiro, who produced Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Shapiro and Nolte are business partners in Kingsgate Films.