Vancouver: For six years, wildlife filmmaker Matthew Todd Paproski has toiled on the docudrama Cougar Crossings – just long enough for the Internet to become a major force in the way films are distributed.

The $500,000 hour-long ‘special’ will finally air on ctv just before the fall schedule is launched in early September. At the same time, portions of the film and other information about the North American big cats will be available through Paproski’s website, TVnewmedia.com (still password protected), which has been helped in part by the $1,500 given to him at last year’s Cyberpitch contest at the Banff Television Festival.

Principal photography was finished in early June on the story of two cougar cubs that descend a mountainside alone. The dramatic story arc gives Paproski an opportunity to blend in environmental themes and cut in news-style sidebars such as the propensity of these animals to carry the feline equivalent of hiv.

While the show is in post, remaining pickups and inserts will be shot until the end of July.

Minds Eye International, meanwhile, is handling old-fashioned worldwide sales of Cougar Crossings, a relationship Paproski is being careful not to disrupt by taking a lead position in Web distribution.

The producer hopes to include a streamed version of his earlier film Fire Attack (with William Shatner) on the site and will be looking throughout the summer for other content to webcast when the site launches officially in August.

*Home movies

Shavick Entertainment’s young indie-minded producers have taken a break from service production to make another in-house feature film.

Finder’s Fee – called a pyscho-drama about a street artist who finds a winning lottery ticket – is produced by Shawn Williamson and Brad Van Arragon. A third producer is Katy Wallin, who brought the Shavick team the script after previously collaborating on a series of E! Entertainment network service deals.

Jeff Probst, otherwise known to some tv viewers as the annoying host on the hit show Survivor, wrote the story and directs the $1.5-million production, which runs July 3-22.

Erik Palladino, in town making the mow Back in Black and a performer in the feature U-571, takes the lead as the artist. James Earl Jones and Vancouver-native Ryan Reynolds (Two Guys and a Girl) are also cast.

Van Arragon says the show is being done on spec with no distributor, broadcaster or presales yet attached.

Previously, Williamson and Van Arragon produced in-house Reg Harkema’s feature A Girl is a Girl.

*Tick tock

Perhaps the first season of These Arms of Mine (Forefront Entertainment) will go down in history as having the longest gestation period of any Canadian series.

The pilot was done in 1998 but didn’t air. On its strength, however, the cbc picked up an order of six episodes produced last summer. They were supposed to air in the spring, but were held back when the broadcaster decided it wanted still more. The latest order of seven episodes – which gives its producers Phil Savath and Susan Duligal a full season on the cbc starting this fall – goes before the cameras July 10 to Sept. 7.

To accommodate the long production cycle – especially for child actor Ryan Hirakida, who is growing up quickly – the season will actually air in two parts to allow for time to pass, says Savath. The first six episodes also have a dramatic arc that was completed. They will air before Christmas and the final will air in the new year.

‘It’s a function of the times,’ says Savath, referring to the unusual production circumstances. ‘It’s hard to finance a big-budget drama. We’ve had tremendous support from the cbc and if this is what they can afford to do, then we should be grateful. This is not the kind of show that works on volume.’

Being less of a ‘long haul’ production, says Savath, means he can attract actors whose schedules may not allow for long-term commitments to shows.

When it eventually comes to air, These Arms of Mine will tell the interwoven stories of ordinary Vancouverites.

*Reunion tour

Burnaby-born actor Michael Cuccione (child actor in Baywatch) reprises his role as a member of the newest boy band in the mtv series 2Gether, based on a standalone mow made last year. The initial order is for eight half-hours of the low-budget, Monkees-inspired musical-comedy series, but that may be expanded to 13 half-hours if the audience is there for the series’ premiere in August.

International Keystone of Vancouver is not involved in the series like it was in the mow. Ian Fodie of Keystone says eight episodes were not enough for Keystone to get involved. He adds Keystone’s multi-mow deal with mtv still stands, though no projects have yet followed 2Gether.

Actors Noah Bastian (Johnny Tsunami), Kevin Farley (Love Stinks) and Alex Solowitz (Never Been Kissed) also return for the series, which chronicles the group’s efforts to stay 2gether 2get famous.

*Etc.

Producer Ian Fodie – who made the Buena Vista video release The Duke, about a dog that inherits an estate – has sold his family feature Most Valuable Primate (formerly Snap Shot) to Vancouver’ s Red Sky Entertainment for Canadian theatrical distribution. The film, shot last year, is about a research chimp that finds his way onto a hapless junior hockey team. The film should be in theaters by August. International Keystone, where Fodie works as cfo, still controls u.s. and international sales.

* Big Red Barn is completing the post-production work on digital video feature Echo Lake (director Richard Story, producers Monique Indra and Sandra Edmunds), supplied compositing/ editing services for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Sixth Day, and cut Katherine Surridge’s half-hour Alzheimer’s drama The Goodbye. The company says it is also completing post on the third season of BTV Business Television, which airs on Prime and ontv, and will air in the u.s. for its fourth season.

* Penticton, b.c.’s 7th annual Beach Blanket Film Festival screens July 14-16 on a full-sized screen floating 25 feet offshore on Okanagan Lake. Mort Ransen’s Touched kicks off the event that includes other Canadian titles such as The Divine Ryans and Felicia’s Journey.

‘The film festival was born out of a selfish desire to see more Canadian films, a desire to give Canadian filmmakers a much-needed venue, and a vision to do all of this in a beautiful, slightly surreal setting,’ says festival founder and organizer Nikos Theodosakis.

* Heart of Business: Passion, Integrity, Soul & Profit by Victoria’s Across Borders Media was rebroadcast on Vision tv June 23. Produced by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Bill Weaver and partner Shivon Robinsong, the documentary follows six entrepreneurs as they deal with their daily struggles, successes and insights.