Vancouver: We may have lost Arnold, but we got Arnie.

The US$170-million blockbuster Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines briefly lighted upon Vancouver, bringing with it the promise of the biggest feature in B.C. history. But alas.

Officially, studio space opened in Los Angeles, where T1 and T2 were shot. Officially, it has nothing to do with runaway production lobbies or the political aspirations of star Arnold Schwarzenegger, who fancies the comfort of California’s gubernatorial chair.

Officially, it means that Universal Picture’s production costs just increased substantially and the studio has asked for its booked stages in Vancouver to be sublet.

Pete Mitchell, GM at Vancouver Film Studios, says the MOW called The Time Tunnel took T3’s unused space at his facility. ‘From a community perspective, I wish it had stayed,’ he says. ‘But from a business perspective, it’s okay. We are full.’

Not to worry, Arnie Becker will be in Vancouver instead.

The characters from TV series LA Law reunite in the NBC movie of the week called LA Law: Return to Justice.

Fans of the Emmy-winning series that ran from 1986 to 1994 will remember Corbin Bernsen (the womanizing Becker), Susan Dey, Larry Drake, Richard Dysart, Jill Eikenberry, Dann Florek, Michele Greene, Harry Hamlin, Alan Rachins, Susan Ruttan and Michael Tucker providing the melodrama.

In this special, Hamlin’s character, having left law for the restaurant business, reluctantly returns to the courtroom to handle the death-penalty appeal of a cop killer he represented more than 10 years before. Dey returns as the district attorney who is convinced Hamlin’s client is guilty.

It will air in May. Production runs Feb. 18 to March 15

Terminator who?

Taking T3’s place as Vancouver’s high-profile action movie of the year is Pitch Black II, the sequel to the stylish sci-fi feature from 2000 that made Vin Diesel a star. The construction phase at The Bridge Studio’s huge effects stage and Studio Four begins in April and the production should be wrapped by September. Universal produces.

Time warp

Speaking of The Time Tunnel: Twentieth Century Fox Television is ‘reimagining’ the 1960s cult favorite TV series, originally produced by Irwin Allen, as a two-hour pilot. Cast wasn’t secured at press time, so there was no word whether producers have gone back in time to get a younger James Darren to reprise his role. Production runs from March 6-26 in this dimension.

In another blast from the past, Dufferin Gate in Vancouver is producing the Showtime MOW Stealing Sinatra, the true-life story of the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra’s son in 1963. Ron Underwood (Mighty Joe Young) directs and William H. Macy stars. Production goes until April 11.

What?! Am I scared?

Vancouver thriller The Burial Society wraps four weeks of production on March 21. The $2.4-million feature, one of the fortunate productions to take advantage of extra feature film funding at British Columbia Film, stars Rob Labelle (Dark Angel), Jan Rubes (Snow Falling on Cedars) and Allan Rich (Amistad) in a story about an unlikely criminal who tries to fake his own death through a Jewish Burial Society. Locals Richard Baumgartel (The Hungarian Revolution) and Howard Dancyger (The Real Thing) produce and Nicholas Racz (The Real Thing) directs.

One room rules them all

Elijah Wood will trade rings for rooming houses in Try Seventeen, a low-budget independent romantic comedy from the U.S. In the story, Wood (Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings) will play a 17-year-old who quits university on the first day of class and moves to a boarding house where he learns life’s lessons from the resident characters.

Pop singer Mandy Moore and Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) costar. Jeff Porter (Body Waves) directs. Production runs March 18 to April 29.

It’s a departure for producer Millennium Films, whose last foray into Vancouver resulted in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s sci-fi thriller Replicant.

A portrait of an artist

Vancouver’s Yaletown Entertainment, an HD specialist, is in-house financing the first hour of a six-hour high-definition documentary series called Have Camera, Will Travel. The series follows famous stills photographers as they roam the world’s exotic locations for major magazines. In episode one, Art Brewer is in Palau, Micronesia to shoot for Islands Magazine and Vancouver’s Todd Craddock (DOP), Nick Kendall (director), PJ Reece (writer) and Thomas Santalab (producer) tag along.

Production was scheduled to wrap at the first week in March. New York-based Cargo Releasing presold the series to Japan’s NHK at NATPE.

Mind warp

Vancouver-based video producer Planetary Media Group is trying to shift astral planes with Psychic Travelers, a documentary that could be the company’s first broadcast venture. It will focus on people who claim to be able to travel places with their minds.

Using private financing, Psychic Travelers is being produced on spec and will be at least one half-hour pilot, says coproducer Damon Winters. Another half-hour episode is planned, and the series will expand to 13 half-hours if a broadcaster can be secured. Winters has his hopes set on the CBC. Production runs until the end of May for the first two episodes.

Two execs quit Sextant

Three weeks after laying off 24% of its employees, Vancouver’s Sextant Entertainment Group lost two of its founding executives: Chris Brough and Michelle Gahagan.

Sextant president Matthew O’Connor says the departing executives left Feb. 22 to ‘to pursue production projects independently.’ Gahagan resigned her position on the Sextant board, while Brough will keep his role as a director.

O’Connor adds that Brough and Gahagan will continue to work closely with Sextant through ‘first-look’ agreements.

New coordinates

Please take note of my new coordinates so that your press releases, love letters and couriers get to me, as they should:

Ian Edwards,

Playback,

c/o 1358 West Georgia Street,

Suite 76006,

Vancouver, BC V6E 4S2

My phone number is still (604) 647-6477 but there is no fax number. You’ll have to get electronic and send information by e-mail. Some of you have several e-mail addresses for me and they all work. The official one to send to is iedwards@brunico.com.