VANCOUVER — Stage 3 Media launched its sci-fi series Sanctuary directly into the Guinness Book of World Records, which notes that it has the ‘highest budget for a direct-to-web broadcast.’

Douglas Coupland is playing games with producers Larry Sugar and J.B. Sugar. The author of Generation X, Souvenir of Canada and Everything’s Gone Green is exec producing the adaptation of his game-themed novel JPod with the father and son principals of No Equal Entertainment for CBC and, according to J.B. Sugar, a web component may also be in the works.

Vancouver talents Sol Guy and Josh Thome are hip-hopping around the world with celebrities such as Joaquin Phoenix, Cameron Diaz, Mos Def, Charlize Theron and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to make 4Real, a doc series for CTV and MTV about young people using art and culture to change their worlds.

Universal Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment are booked at Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto through September, shooting Flash of Genius with Greg Kinnear. The Little Miss Sunshine star will play Robert Kearns, the inventor who waged a lengthy legal battle against Detroit automakers, claiming they stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper. The story is reworked from a New Yorker article and marks the directing debut of producer Marc Abraham (Let’s Go to Prison, Children of Men). Lauren Graham (Evan Almighty) also stars.

More Stone for SelleckThe Jesse Stone franchise, about a small-town New England detective with a drinking problem, played by Tom Selleck, is returning to Halifax for a fifth edition. Jesse Stone: Thin Ice has opened a production office in Halifax, with the expected start date in August.

The horror remake The Echo is set for a four-week stay at Cinespace Film Studios starting next month, with Filipino director Yam Laranas redoing his 2004 offering Sigaw in English. Jesse Bradford (Flags of Our Fathers) is attached to star. Local impresario Don Carmody (Silent Hill, Skinwalkers) exec produces along with Doug Davison (The Departed, Dark Water) and screenwriter Eric Bernt.

Ridley Scott and Tony Scott have set up shop in North Vancouver for the remake of The Andromeda Strain. The long-in-the-works miniseries for A&E revisits the Michael Crichton book and movie from the 1970s about a deadly virus that comes to Earth via a downed satellite. Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order) stars, working under director Mikael Salomon (The Company, Rome). It shoots until mid-September and is set to air sometime next year. The Scotts exec produce along with David Zucker (Phone Booth, BASEketball) and Tom Thayer (Kojak).

Instant Star’s Laura Vandervoort has landed the plum role of Supergirl on Smallville, playing the super-powered cousin to Tom Welling’s Clark Kent, and will arrive with the start of the seventh season of the CW series, which shoots in B.C.

You get the sense that saying Jay Switzer has left CHUM Ltd. as a Canadian broadcasting legend would just make him cringe.

Jay Switzer’s roots with CHUM and Citytv run deep. After all, it was his mother, Phyllis Switzer, who launched City in Toronto in 1972 along with a group that included Moses Znaimer. From working the switchboard in his school days to becoming a junior City program manager and eventually taking over as CHUM’s top man, Switzer has spent most of his life in the CHUM/City fold.

1983: Having worked the switchboard at City while in high school, the MBA now becomes a junior City program manager. One of his first major tasks at CHUM is to write the license application for MuchMusic, which proves successful

Vancouver: Film is bust and TV is booming in Vancouver this year.