Vancouver: Harvey Entertainment, the publisher that owns the rights to Ritchie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost and a host of other classic cartoon characters, has engaged Vancouver’s Mainframe Entertainment to produce the cgi video release Casper’s Haunted Christmas.

In the 90-minute production, created with the same 3D animation skill that Mainframe displays in its recent productions Weird-Ohs and Beast Machines, Casper must frighten a mortal in order to preserve his uncles’ (The Ghostly Trio’s) licence to scare.

According to Mainframe spokesperson Mairi Welman, all the voices were provided by Canadian actors except for Casper, who was imported from the States. Production continues until June, with video stores stocking up on Casper in November, just in time for Christmas.

*Ex-pats come home

Titanic ego James Cameron – the Canadian done good – is co-executive producing the pilot Dark Angel, a new series proposed for Fox.

Set in San Francisco, the futuristic story involves an 18-year-old, genetically enhanced human ‘prototype’ hunted by her former military handlers. The longtime angel of Vancouver’s service production success, Stephen Sassen, is a coproducer.

The pilot, which is in production March 6 to April 7, features actor Jessica Alba (10 Things I Hate About You, Idle Hands).

On another set, Kevin Lund and TJ Scott (Chrome Pegasus Productions) – two Toronto television writers now based in l.a. – are the driving force behind Black Top, an hbo movie-of-the-week by Fireworks.

Lund and Scott cowrote the script and Scott directs the thriller Feb. 7 to March 3.

Rocker Meatloaf – who canceled 18 tour dates to prepare for Black Top – takes on the lead role of a trucker-cum-serial killer, with Kristen Davis (Sex and the City) and Vancouver actor Lochlyn Munro (Big Man on Campus) playing the young lovers caught up in his scheme. Vicky Pratt (Cleopatra 2525) also stars in the road movie that will shoot all through Vancouver and Britannia Beach.

In 1998, Lund and Scott produced in the Philippines the independent feature Legacy with Rod Steiger and David Hasselhoff.

*Where everyone knows your name

First-time filmmaker Geraldine Lahiffe is turning her past as a barmaid into a short film. The Industry is described as a 25-minute black comedy about the staff and ‘freak show’ customers of a ‘cheesy’ nightclub. Lahiffe wrote the script and also is producing, directing and casting the $11,000, self-financed production. Shooting takes place over six weekend days and wraps by March 13.

The cast of locals includes Kevan Ohstji, Tonjha Richardson, Tania Turner, Todd Hansen and Dirk Gombos.

Lahiffe plans for the short to make the festival rounds and she has created it to appeal to Canadian tv.

*Out with the old, in with the new

The first to go when Scott Kennedy took over the reins of Voyageur Film Capital in Vancouver in December was Voyageur’s development slate of features and series.

Instead, he said, the company will focus on Shiney’s Head, the international coprod prepping in Dublin through Kennedy’s Cadence Entertainment, which is a wholly owned division of Voyageur.

However, Voyageur has just acquired the rights to the life story of local poet Susan Musgrave, who married bank robber-author Stephen Reid. Their life took a nasty turn last summer when Reid was caught in another bank heist.

The Musgrave biopic will be a coproduction with Raincoast Storylines and project writer Jerry Thompson, who previously produced a cbc Life & Times biography of the couple that aired last year.

* Satirists Bob Robertson and Linda Cullen will revitalize 13 episodes of Dragnuts. For the new series, destined for Comedy Network, Cullen Robertson Productions has taken 13 episodes of the original Dragnet police series from the 1950s, stripped out the old sound track and created a new voice, music and effects track.

With Soapbox Productions of Vancouver, Robertson and Cullen produce Double Exposure for ctv and Comedy.

*Write up my alley

Six budding screenwriters are winners of the spring 2000 script competition hosted by Vancouver’s Praxis Centre for Screenwriters. Winners are assigned story editors-mentors who consult on rewrites.

The lucky six are: Beverley Cooper (Toronto) for The Partly True Adventures of Pearl Hart; Ross Ferguson (Vancouver) for John Doe; Jean Kindratsky (Vancouver) for The Botero Cat; Katherine Koller (Edmonton) for Abby’s Place; David Ray (Vancouver) for The Time and Space Machine; and Linda Theodosakis (Penticton, b.c.) for Losers.

The rewrites are judged with the six winners of the fall 1999 competition to select a final six scripts that will be workshopped with actors this summer.

*Stayin’ alive

Victoria filmmaker Barry Casson will begin shooting locally in March on The Search, a sequel to his instructional film about wilderness survival shot in 1983.

He says the new half-hour drama will be similar in themes to Lost in the Woods but more action-oriented. In the original, a boy wanders into the woods and stays alive using survival skills. (In case you’re wondering: stay in one place, avoid eating unfamiliar berries and plants, keep warm by using boughs to make a bed.)

In the sequel, the lead character suffers from asthma and he must battle the effects of his disease and the elements after he and his dog are washed down a river.

The Search will look for distribution through North America’s school system and Casson hopes it sparks a dramatic series based on search and rescue.

*Island fever

The roundup of documentaries, features and shorts at the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival, Feb. 4-10, includes a roster of b.c. talent. On view are the features Rollercoaster by Scott Smith and DayDrift by Ryan Bonder. Documentaries include Mark Achbar’s Two Brides & A Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage and Oliver Hockenhull’s Building Heaven Remembering Earth. In the short category is Stealing Kisses by Howie Woo.