• Pontypool is better than Resident Evil: Extinction but not as good as 1992’s Braindead, according to Entertainment Weekly, which recently ranked the Bruce McDonald horror among the top 25 zombie movies of all time. It came in at number 19, bracketed by the third Evil installment and the early Peter Jackson picture. Pontypool continues to draw praise as it tours theaters in the U.K., South Korea, Germany and other territories in Europe and Asia. ‘Original and inventive,’ says BBC’s Radio 5.

• Recent creditors on Canwest’s ledgers include Breakthrough Films & Television and Toronto equipment renter Sim Video, according to a
document released this week (360 KB .pdf) amid the company’s move into creditor protection. The 50-page report lists almost 1,000 companies and groups, ranging from U.S. studios to a Winnipeg locksmith. Among the largest bills are $8.5 million for Twentieth Century Fox, $1.4 million for Columbia TriStar and $3.7 million for Universal. Also listed is $141.75 for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, $59,700 for Breakthrough, $252 for Sim Video and $721.69 to competitor CTV. Some of the debts have reportedly already been paid.

• Jacob Tierney’s The Trotsky has won the audience prize for most popular movie at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

• Do you look good on camera? Can your eyes tell off-white from eggshell from vanilla? Then you should call HGTV and WestWind Pictures, where a search is underway for ‘the nation’s next big design star.’ The winner gets to host a new show. Candidates have until Nov. 27 to send a two-minute video showing off their ‘design savvy’ — 20 to 30 of which will be screen-tested in December. (Details at WestWind.)

• The handiwork of a small but renowned group of photographers will be highlighted in Vancouver Rising, a new doc for Bravo! about the city’s leading edge on the avant-garde art scene. Producer Ric Beairsto (Code Green Canada) of Laughing Mountain Communications and director Harry Killas (Superkids) are shooting in B.C. before moving on to New York, Berlin and the (yet again) humbled Toronto. The doc will look at Vancouver-bred ‘photo conceptualists’ such as Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace and Rodney Graham — airing in 2010.

• CTV and ABC are set to debut V on Tuesday, bringing back the 1980s sci-fi in ‘re-imagined’ form for a four-week teaser run. The B.C.-shot series, which follows the arrival of a seemingly benevolent alien species on Earth, is expected to pick up again in 2010. Scott Wolf (Party of Five) stars with Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost).