Vancouver: Mercy Point – the upn series produced by Mandalay Television (and parent Lions Gate Pictures) in Vancouver – has been put on hiatus after only two aired episodes.

The week of Oct. 19, crews were working to complete the seventh episode about emergency room doctors aboard a space station.

Speculators point to Vancouver-shot Sentinel, still in production as a mid-season replacement series, as a likely substitute.

*Toddlers stumbles

The big-budget Eddie Murphy feature Toddlers, which was supposed to start a five-month build in January for Paramount, has been derailed. Blame the lackluster box office for Murphy’s current flick Holy Man for the lack of confidence on the future project, say local insiders.

*Go west

The new Vancouver office of Dufferin Gate opened in September and is taking its first steps in business, but local producer Rose Lam (Double Happiness) says more information about operations will be available in a month.

Because of the Toronto hq’s lucrative association with Showtime, it made sense to expand operations to the West Coast, says Lam. About 80% of production over the past four years has been for Showtime, she estimates.

‘Vancouver is a great place to be shooting,’ says Lam. Production on the first Vancouver mow, A Storm in Summer for Showtime, has been moved to the spring. Lam says there will be six to eight projects, mostly mows, produced in the next 12 months in Vancouver.

The Vancouver office is currently negotiating a labor agreement with the local unions.

*Fraternal order

Vancouver producer Bill Vince, who split from brother Robert Vince and Keystone Entertainment earlier this year, is just completing back-to-back features in New Brunswick.

Ricky Six is a witchcraft story starring Vincent Kartheiser (Masterminds) and The Fourth Floor is a thriller with William Hurt and Juliette Lewis.

Budgets range from $3 million to $8 million, says Vince.

‘We chose to take different paths,’ says Vince, referring to the split with his brother. ‘It was time to make a change.’

Vince says he is making films for the ‘mall kids’ aged 16 to 25 while brother Robert is making films for families – namely the Air Bud franchise.

Robert Vince says Keystone will make a third Air Bud called World Pup – this one about soccer playing puppies. (Air Bud i earned us$25 million, while the recent sequel – Golden Receiver – earned us$13 million. Disney/Miramax distributes in the u.s.).

World Pup goes to camera in January and Slapshot, about a hockey playing chimp, goes into production in March.

*B.C. Film commits $1.4M

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, British Columbia Film committed $1.4 million to 28 local productions. In all, 52 hours were produced in 20 productions and eight screenplays were given development money.

Among the sponsored titles are the features 10,000 Delusions (Fire Horse Productions), Better than Chocolate (Rave Film) and Tail Lights Fade (Cadence Entertainment).

Series include the second seasons of Champions of the Wild (Omni Film) and Cosmic Highway (Hit the Highway Productions), Pet Friends (soma), Scoop and Doozie (Queen Bee Productions) and Weird Homes (Yaletown Entertainment).

Documentaries include Citizen Shame (Vidatron Entertainment), The History of Christmas (Insight Film & Video), Mortal Remains (Foxglove Films), Sacred Journey (Ghost Films) and Unarmed Bodyguards (Reel Myth Productions).

Documentary Productions had three reality titles: Aboriginal Health Crisis, To Have and To Hold and Mother of all Mothers. David Paperny Films produced A Canadian in Korea, The Life and Times of Jimmy Pattison, Curious George and Skid Row Hero: The Tommy Prince Story.

*Paper work

The forms and guidelines for the long-awaited production services tax credit in b.c. were off to the printers as Playback was going to its printer. Foreign productions, working since June 1, are eligible to recoup 11% of b.c. labor charges. The program is harmonious with the federal program that pays 11% of Canadian labor charges.

As for the domestic provincial tax credit called Film Incentive b.c., overseer British Columbia Film has processed 16 applications worth $7.2 million since the program was enacted April 1.

Productions from Mainframe Entertainment, Vidatron Entertainment and Cadence Entertainment, among others, have been vetted to date.

Karen Lam, business analyst at BC Film, says there could be 60-plus applications by the end of the fiscal year that could claim a total of $15 million in rebates.

The basic 20% credit has generated $6.7 million in rebates to date, while the 12.5% regional bonus has generated $480,000 and the training bonus has generated $10,400.

*Short cuts

Karen Lam, in an extracurricular capacity, will produce and Caroline Coutts direct and write the nine-minute, Canada Council-funded short called The Lonely Passion of Petar the Pig Farmer. The $25,000 fable about a farmer who wishes for a wife and ends up with a pig goes to camera Nov. 7-10.

Human cast was still to be secured at press time, but four 100-pound pigs were ready to go.