Vancouver: Unlike most every producer in Vancouver these days, Dufferin Gate’s West Coast office is multitasking again, with three pilots for Showtime and a TV movie for Lifetime underway at press time.

Earthlings, starring Jennifer Beals, wrapped Aug. 28. The pilot for Showtime is about the ‘lives and loves’ of a group of Los Angeles lesbians.

Meanwhile, The Ranch is a series pilot for Showtime directed by Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan) and stars Amy Madigan and Vancouver actress Samantha Ferris (Beggars and Choosers) as prostitutes in a Nevada brothel. Production wraps Sept. 6.

Out of Order is a contemporary drama about an unhappy marriage of Hollywood writers that stars Eric Stoltz (recently on the Vancouver set of The Butterfly Effect), Felicity Huffman (Magnolia), William H. Macy (last here for Stealing Sinatra) and Justine Bateman (Family Ties). The pilot’s production wraps Sept. 10.

And for Lifetime, Canadian actors Leslie Hope (24) and Wendy Crewson (Suddenly Naked, which opened here Aug. 23) star in This Much I Know, a story about an unhappily married woman who begins a lesbian affair with her boss. The MOW is written, directed and produced by Lee Rose (The Truth About Jane) and production wraps Sept. 6

‘The amount of business we are doing is not indicative of volumes in Vancouver,’ notes Dufferin Gate producer Rose Lam, who will oversee six productions this year. ‘We’re not feeling the effects of the slowdown.’

Main customer Showtime is keeping the work coming, she says.

In fact, Dufferin Gate will take over production of the 13 one-hour episodes of The Chris Isaak Show (season three) this December, by which time Lam will find out if any of the pilots go to series.

Chinese take out

Vancouver provides an exotic location for two Chinese series here for pickups through Shan Tam’s Maple Ridge Films.

Jade Buddha has wrapped its Chinese shoot, but is in Vancouver with two characters (actors Da Wei Tong and Xiao Hong Xiong) who travel to the west for part of the story about a woman and her complex romantic life. Production wraps Sept. 10.

Meanwhile, Love Memories is a sequel to Truly Confession, a popular Chinese series, and is also doing pickups here. In the series, a grieving man (actor Hu Bing) who lost his wife finds new love (Qu Ying). As part of the series, which reflects China’s growing middle class, the characters travel to Vancouver for a working holiday.

Both productions are Mandarin language and will be seen in China, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. Tam, who specializes in Asian production, says she is getting more calls from Chinese producers looking at Vancouver as a location.

Mystical pets

Producer Christian Bruyere, who previously produced the award-winning series Champions of the Wild for Omni Film Productions, has started his own company with producer wife Mary Bissell.

Mystique Films, based in West Vancouver, is already in production with Healing with Animals, a documentary series for Discovery Health Channel Canada, One: the Body, Mind, & Spirit Channel, Knowledge Network and Access Alberta.

The 13-part, half-hour series is about animals like dogs, cats, horses, llamas, potbelly pigs and dolphins and their ability to enhance human health and well-being.

Stripped and primed

Hockey players and naked chefs will jostle for position as three shows sharing the cramped Shooters Broadcast Services studios get underway in Vancouver this month.

Snapshots with Jim Hughson is 26 weekly episodes of intimate chat with hockey’s legends for Rogers Sportsnet. Host Jim Hughson, a seasoned play-by-play broadcaster, gets into the corners with the personalities and their love of the game.

Produced by Ross Sullivan, Snapshots debuts Oct. 7. Scheduled guests include Tiger Williams, Markus Naslund, Kevin Lowe and agent Don Meehan.

Sportsnet News is the new name for Sports Central Primetime, which has been on air for a year. The regional sports news and features show has expanded from a 30-minute segment four days a week to a full hour program weeknights. Don Taylor hosts.

Across the studio, meanwhile, will be Barely Cooking, produced by Larry Sugar. Few details at press time, but peeled chefs are on the menu with peeled carrots.

aWrap

Locally produced, low-budget feature aWake wrapped Aug. 8 after five years of gestation in the imaginations of director David Frank Gomes and producer Mark Glover Masterson. Five years ago, they came across the body of a young man who jumped off a bridge and investigated his life, eventually attending the man’s wake with his family and friends. The filmic version features two brothers on a quest to uncover the mystery of the victim.

Gomes calls the $12,000, largely deferred production a dark comedy. Shot on DV and 16mm, aWake has broadcast deals with The Movie Network and Movie Central.

Locals Jeff Roop, Preston Cook, Leila Johnson, Antony Holland, Wendy McDonald, John Burnside and Natassia Malthe make up the cast.

Another life

SecondSun Entertainment, together with L.A. partner Pterodactyl/Kew Productions, is relaunching the feline cartoon Heathcliff as a 3D concept. Two feature-length, direct-to-video features begin production later this year. Plans for television, interactive and ancillary opportunities are in the works, say producers.

Heathcliff, created by George Gately as a strip in 1973, has been the subject of Saturday morning series, home video releases and merchandising.

Bump up and grind

Kenneth Sherman, the editor on Rhino Brothers, directed and coproduced Go-Go Boy, a short film, as an exercise in film technology and as a calling card for a feature film. Wrapping four days of production Aug. 16, Go-Go Boy stars Gabrielle Rose and newcomers Tahmoh Penikett and Connor Widdows in a story based on a Vancouver-made superhero comic strip. Sherman says the short, made with Rainmaker Digital, Sony, Matrix Professional Video and Airwaves sponsorship, will debut during the Vancouver International Film Festival’s Trade Forum panel called From the Desktop to The Big Screen about how do-it-yourself digital video can be bumped up to 35mm.

Spare a coupla thou?

Location angst in Vancouver has taken a politically sensitive turn with drug addicts, sex-trade workers, panhandlers and others in the woebegone Downtown Eastside demanding that film producers pay them for the disruption to their neighborhood. According to the B.C. Film Commission, 30 film productions received letters this summer from the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users promising protests if there wasn’t compensation.

But Gordon Hardwick at the Commission says producers regularly donate to area groups such as the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, in part, to fund a community liaison on sets. Productions such as DaVinci’s Inquest regularly shoot in the Downtown Eastside. At press time, no shoots had been upset.