Vancouver: U.S. studios are back in the lab with a number of experiments underway on the West Coast.

Eastwick is for Warner Bros. This is the show for any of you wondering what happened next at the end of the 1987 feature film The Witches of Eastwick with Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfieffer and the satanic Jack Nicholson. The half-hour presentation pilot is about the witches’ sons and wraps 10 days of production March 28.

Dick Clark and Jonathan Prince are executive producing an untitled NBC family drama set in the 1960s. Production runs from March 18 to April 3.

ABC is commissioning a pilot called The Funkhousers, which wraps production March 26. Created by the team that made The Simpsons, Funkhousers is a family comedy.

John Doe is a one-hour drama for Fox, with production wrapping April 5.

That Was Then is a one-hour drama pilot for ABC and Touchstone. It stars James Bulliard (Blue Murder), Tyler Labine (Antitrust) and Kiele Sanchez (Class Warfare) in a story about a 30-year-old who travels back in time to the pivotal point in high school when his life took a downturn.

Boy-girl-boy

New company Studios Victoria is kicking off its business plan with the British coproduction No Night is Too Long, based on the Ruth Rendell novel of the same name. The erotic thriller about a gay love triangle will be shot in Juneau, Alaska, Victoria and London for the BBC, BBC Canada and Showcase. Marc Warren (Band of Brothers) and Mikela J. Mikael (Strange World) star.

Financing realities

To subsidize or not to subsidize? At Omni Film Productions in Vancouver, the answer to the question depends on the kind of production wending its way through the office. Drama is probably yes, while information programming is increasingly no.

Case in point: Ancient Clues. Omni’s final two half-hour episodes of the eight-episode series about the world of forensic archeology will air on Discovery Canada March 19 and 26. Until late in the game when B.C. Film came in with 6% of the funding, Ancient Clues was financed entirely by broadcast licences from seven broadcasters and investment and tax credits from Omni. And it wasn’t cheap, with the series coming in at $170,000 per half-hour episode.

‘We decided to forsake LFP and EIP financing and focus on the best paleopathologists in the world,’ says producer Brian Hamilton. In order to qualify for CTF, he says, Ancient Clues would have had to focus on the best Canadian scientists, a prospect that was creatively too limiting. Ancient Clues, which is drawing 50%-better-than-average audiences on Discovery, will be translated into 19 different languages and broadcast in 200 territories around the world.

‘As a company, we want a diversity of financing models,’ says Hamilton.

Creepy Crypts, a one-hour documentary spin-off of Ancient Clues, is financed with a broadcast licence from Travel Channel U.S., foreign presales and Omni’s in-house resources. Production begins in April.

Quite Places and Quiet Mind, two information series produced at Omni, each have government money.

The third season of the information series Healthy Home goes into production this month. As a magazine-format show, it doesn’t qualify for government subsidy. The 13 half-hours, hosted by Tamara Stanners, are paid for through commissioning fees and presales from broadcasters HGTV, Discovery Health and Knowledge Network for viewers who want to know how to make their homes environmental, spiritual and creative jewel boxes.

In February, meanwhile, Omni wrapped production on Spidermania, a one-hour documentary paid for entirely by Animal Planet U.S. Made to coincide with the release of the Hollywood film based on the comic book character Spiderman, Spidermania explores the world of arachnids as seen through the eyes of Victoria, B.C. enthusiast Rick West. Airing in late April, Spidermania is produced by Christian Bruyere and directed by Peter von Puttkamer.

Omni’s dramas such as Edgemont, however, probably wouldn’t exist without government largesse, says Hamilton.

‘Dramas are so much more expensive,’ says Hamilton. ‘And shows proudly set in Vancouver have less sales potential, so government money is much more important.’

Weird nuptials

As it enters its fifth season of production on the HD series Weird Homes, Vancouver’s Yaletown Productions is expanding its search for all things strange with a new one-hour special and 13-episode half-hour series about ‘weird weddings’ – probably, but not yet officially, the name.

The production company has put out a call for unique, zany and wild weddings to put on camera and then on WE: Women’s Entertainment in the U.S. and Life Network in Canada, which have provided a healthy licence, says producer Mike Collier. Production could begin later this month.

In the meantime, call (604) 669-3543, fax (604) 669-5149 or email research@yaletownentertainment.com if you are about to take your beloved to love, honor and be eccentric.

‘Til we peed

Zed, the new Vancouver-based late-night show starting March 18 on CBC, has picked 12 projects to produce from the 1,000 candidates submitted for consideration. Among them is Dirty L’il Baster from Vancouver’s Atomic Cartoons.

‘Who would have thought that our saga of a bitter, plucked chicken that shoots hot gravy at a large hulking alligator would get the go-ahead?’ says cocreator Rob Davies. ‘Our thought was to create an intelligent, cerebral piece that would serve as a meaningful social commentary. But then we said ‘to hell with it’ and just came up with a ridiculously immature cartoon that made us laugh ’til we peed.’

Baster stars a naked, half-baked rooster and gawky, over-size bipedal alligator locked in a battle of good versus evil. It is set to air April 2.

Other mini-pilots from B.C. include Below the Belt from Gold Star Productions in Victoria, about a ‘skewered’ Hollywood love story, and Self Helpless, by producers Scott MacEachern and Dennis Heaton, a comic take on advice columnists.

From the rest of Canada:

* Bridging the Gap, a road trip story by Peter Murphy and Richard Forbes of Charlottetown

* Foreclosure, breaking untrue news by Goofy Name Productions, Edmonton

* Naughty Soxxx, sock puppets’ take on the cliche porno film genre by Bastard Amber Productions, Outremont

* Screwheads, Prairie sketch comedy by James Whittingham, Regina

* Song for a Day, musicians write three songs in three days, by John Southworth, Hawksley Workman and Elizabeth Littlejohn, Toronto

* The Truth Project, Canadian Heritage spoof by Nick Appleton, Jessica Cowley and Jennifer Strate, Toronto

* Urban Legends, Canada’s most popular urban myths by Mountain Road Productions, Ottawa

* Wychwood Park, a soap opera done really fast by Interzone Production, Toronto

* Yes We Do Windows, contemporary identity revealed through the eyes of Toronto visual artist Ken Tolmie, Toronto.