*Prognostications ’98

Vancouver: let’s assume the provincial government will ante up and the b.c. industry won’t see business evaporate in the service sector this year. What else will happen?

Dixie Cutler, publicist: ‘A lot depends on whether we get the performers situation resolved. If that settles we will see more features.’

Chris Delaney, animator, Delaney and Friends: ‘The animation industry is fragmenting in specific age groups as broadcasters, themselves, become more focused on age groups.

‘So I predict that animation companies are going to specialize more and more with shows geared to groups [aged] two to six, six to nine, six to 12, that kind of thing.’

Stephen Hegyes, independent producer: ‘I’m hopeful that the rumors I’ve heard about more funding for Canadian features comes through in ’98.’

Tom Rowe, Emmy-nominated producer, Pacific Motion Pictures: ‘We want to do more children’s and family projects and are talking to the unions about negotiating contracts for those budgets.’

Paul Sharpe, sound engineer, Sharpe Sound: ‘The new [provincial] tax credit will pay off.

‘That will increase the number of features that will finish in Vancouver. I also hope to see an increase in the number of indigenous features, which has fallen off in the past few years.’

Tim Hiltz, B.C. Council of Film Unions rep: ‘There will be continued labor stability.

‘We will continue to be strong, get better and grow.’

*Antonucci coup

Lupo the Butcher has three younger cousins.

Lupo creator Danny Antonucci of Vancouver-based a.k.a. Cartoon, has sold animated series Ed, Edd ‘n’ Eddy to Turner’s Cartoon Network. Production will take place in Vancouver with a fall ’98 launch.

The series focuses on three best friends, living in a suburban cul-de-sac, who tackle the horrors of puberty and the awkwardness of growing up.

Each half-hour will comprise two 11-minute animated shorts.

In other cartoon news, Natterjack Animation’s three-minute short film The Champ In Snapper Bob has been airing in rotation on mtv’s Cartoon Sushi series since late last year. Produced originally as a way to generate financing for a 26-episode series, the initial film has been well enough received to encourage the company to produce more shorts. Owned by RH Entertainment, The Champ is about a punch-drunk ex-boxer.

*Costume tailoring

‘Everyone laughs and that’s an unusual thing for us,’ says Vancouver-based special effects makeup technician Tibor Farkas on the set of Big & Hairy.

Working on shows such as Poltergeist and Millennium, Farkas gets to do his share of gruesome effects, but his work on the family comedy for Showtime and Canadian theaters is decidedly more upbeat.

b&h is a Sasquatch-basketball movie. Formed from life casts, the three Big Foot suits were designed and completed in Vancouver, with special hair from Massachusetts. The form-fitting costumes add up to five inches to the actors, weigh 12 pounds each and take two hours to put on.

Trevor Jones, a one-time Grizzlies nba mascot, is the hirsute basketball prodigy Ed, while his mom is played by producer Colleen Nystedt’s assistant Anna McRoberts and his dad is played by Adrian Hughes.

*Young turks

Vancouver weekly newspaper Business in Vancouver has named its annual top 40 business personalities under the age of 40. The movie types making the cut for the list published in the first issue of 1998 are B.C. Film Commissioner Pete Mitchell, 33, would-be studio mogul Jim Meier, 26, and producer Colleen Nystedt, 39.

*U.S. invasion

Disturbing Behavior, a feature for mgm, shoots between Jan. 19 and March 23.

A thriller of the Scream variety, Behavior is about a town with a plot to alter the behavior of rebellious teenagers.

Loyal Opposition, a film by Shavick Entertainment for Family Channel, stars Nick Mancuso (Stingray). About a rogue u.s. general who ends up holding the White House hostage, the project is shooting Jan. 8-30.

nbc mow Gallows Hill shoots this month and is about a teenager suspected of being the reincarnation of a witch.