Vancouver: After the drama of a last-minute funding reprieve from Telefilm Canada, The New Beachcombers MOW goes into four weeks of production July 8.

The $3-million production, commissioned as part of CBC’s 50th anniversary and set to air in October or November, will return to the Sunshine Coast village of Gibsons 11 years after the Canadian classic series went off air, this time to save the famed Molly’s Reach restaurant from the evil doings of greedy condo developers.

While the characters created by the late Bruno Gerussi and Robert Clothier will not be recast, actor Jackson Davies (a coproducer with original series cocreator Marc Strange and Soapbox Productions’ Nick Orchard) returns as Constable John along with new addition Dave Thomas, who is the proprietor of Molly’s Reach. Vancouver actor Deanna Milligan is one of a trio of new younger characters that, with the success of the MOW, could provide the fresh blood for a new Beachcombers half-hour series.

‘We hope a series will spin out,’ says Orchard. ‘We think the Canadian airwaves are too filled with cop shows. It’s time for a nice gentle family show.’

Graham Greene plays a local reporter. Strange wrote the MOW script.

Orchard says Gibsons is welcoming the production back with open arms. An open cast call for a few one-line roles generated 500 applicants. He adds the production will be shot on 35mm to best capture the beauty of the local landscape, which was the original series’ calling card both at home and as an international sales success.

Soapbox is also developing the LR (Bunny) Wright novel The Suspect, also set on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, with Donald Sutherland in the lead, along with a CBC comedy series called sevbanin.com and a CBC doc called Shakin’ All Over, a history of Canadian rock and roll.

Go figure

In the first five months of 2002, made-in-B.C. productions are down 23% year-over-year in terms of the numbers of titles, but those titles tend to be bigger budget, so the relative value might be more favorably compared with 2001.

While we can fuss about why there is less work, the reality is there ain’t much we can do as a Hollywood back lot to even out the volatility.

If politically sensitive Hollywood executives are going to heed the wishes of the anti-Canada Film and Television Action Committee, we are going to lose some business. If the fickle trends of programming shrink MOW or network series volumes, crews here are going to be less busy. If Hollywood decides Vancouver is more about interior studio productions than exteriors, then the nature of the business is going to change – which is what we might be seeing now.

It’s the bigger-budget features like X-Men II that seem to be driving the B.C. scene business today. Next year? It’s impossible to predict.

We might be back to being the TV town that attracted people like Steve Sasson, one of the original Americans to come north (for the 1987 TV series 21 Jump Street) and stay. Recently, however, after 15 years and the demise of Dark Angel, the television producer packed up his family and moved back to L.A. to work on Boom Town. No one is linking his departure to the ‘Blame Canada’ campaign by the FTAC. It’s just a matter of going where the work is.

More EIP docs

Other B.C. documentary filmmakers braving the funding jungle include Chris Bruyere (Mystique Films) with the nature-themed Healing with Animals and Stephen Carruthers (Step Ahead Productions) with the porn-industry expose The Money Shot for Global.

Big Red Barn Media Group has at least three documentaries underway with Team Spirit: The Story of Team Indigenous, an English-language doc about an aboriginal hockey team, and Hunt and The Walk and visual art doc Ravens and Eagles II, both aboriginal-language productions.

Executive Pictures is producing The World According to Keith, about the inventor of improvisational theater; Rainshadow Media is making Rainwolves, about the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C.; and Face to Face Media is making The Other Arctic (Top of the World).

Cooking with gas

Producers Jeff Barringer and Danise Lofstrom of Sunshine Coast-based Max Flex Television Productions are in production with the third season of Gaslight Gourmet, a cooking show owned by utility BC Gas and made for Knowledge Network. Chef David Forestell hosts the 26 half-hours. The new season debuts in September on Knowledge and W Network.

Bulletin board

Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy, by Vancouver studio aka Cartoon, is among the programs screening at Cartoon Power!, an exhibit at the New York Museum of Television and Radio celebrating Cartoon Network’s 10 years in business. The episode called ‘An Ed is Born,’ which was commissioned by CN, will be part of the Friends and Foes program that runs Aug. 13-25, though the whole exhibit runs until Sept. 15.

* The New VI in Victoria got in on the CHUM Television tradition of celebrating Canada Day with the citizenship ceremony of new Canadians in Victoria’s inner harbor.

In other West Coast CHUM news, Citytv Vancouver (formerly CKVU) handed out $10,000 to outstanding graduates of BCIT’s Broadcast and Media Communications program, the first part of a five-year, $175,000 commitment by City to BCIT’s broadcasting program. Vinh Nguyen and Shaun Minhas were honored with CHUM TV Awards in Television, while Allister D’Souza and Miyoung Lee were awarded CHUM TV Awards in Journalism. Each graduate received $2,500.

* The Victoria Film Producers Association has a new website at www.vifpa.com – members only. The non-profit association is dedicated to the growth of the film industry on Vancouver Island through educational seminars, networking and professional development activities.

* Vancouver-made ‘neo-noir thriller’ Middlemen, a no-budget independent that screened at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival, got a video release June 18 through Rogers Video. The feature stars James Hutson, Kirsten Robek, Byron Lucas and others. Kevin Speckmaier is coproducer/cowriter/director.

* According to Lions Gate Television, the June 16 debut of its Vancouver-based series The Dead Zone generated a 4.7 household rating and 6.4 million viewers for USA Network, making the series the highest-rated and most-watched dramatic series premiere in the history of basic cable and doubling the regular Sunday audience for USA Network.

* Vancouver-based Avrio Filmworks has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the Canada/U.K. coproduction thriller Fallen Angels. Michael Ironside (A Perfect Storm, Total Recall, Mindstorm, Top Gun), Kai Wiesinger (One Kiss, Backbeat, Dracula), Esme Eliot (The Killing Zone) and Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man, Epicenter, Inferno) star in the story of four classmates who reunite after five years to relive the tragic fire at their high school. Avrio founder Michael Derbas is a coproducer and previously made The House Next Door, Mindstorm, Epicenter and Y2K.