Peter Suschitzky’s list of credits is as varied as it is impressive. The Warsaw-born, London-based director of photography’s features include The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Empire Strikes Back, Mars Attacks! and The Man in the Iron Mask. If there is one continuous thread in the last 13 years of his career, it is his collaboration with director David Cronenberg, which has garnered him Genie Awards for Dead Ringers (1988), Naked Lunch (1991) and Crash (1996). M. Butterfly (1993), eXistenZ (1999) and the forthcoming Spider round out the films on which the two have worked.

Helen Shaver may be better known as an actor than a director, but it is her directing talent that’s being lauded this year with a Gemini nod for an episode (‘Simon Says’) of The Outer Limits.

Brent-Karl Clackson, nominated for a best director Gemini for The Outer Limits (‘Something About Harry’) has been called ‘the hardest working man in television’ by some of his associates. When he’s not on set, he is known to take his down time by virtually disappearing, and certainly disappearing from the media’s view.

The wisdom of the real-estate mantra location, location, location was proven for Montreal’s Bureau de Post Productions when a strategic move into a desirable, agency-laden neighborhood helped put the shop on the spot post map.

‘We knew from the beginning he [lead character Dominic Da Vinci] would have a drinking problem and we weren’t going to just solve it,’ says Alan Di Fiore, one of the writers on coroner series Da Vinci’s Inquest. ‘He has to deal with that just the way in real life you would not solve someone’s drinking problem in one hour.’

Frank Borg could be an intriguing character on the very show he writes for, Da Vinci’s Inquest. You may, in fact, have spotted him in small roles, such as showcasing his blackjack skills in a season two episode.

The transition from poetry to television writing is not quite as big a leap as some, including poet and Gemini writer nominee Esta Spalding, might think.

Vancouver: The lingering effects of the almost-strike by SAG earlier this year began to fade a little more with the last days of summer.
Vancouver’s overall volumes began to increase in September with the addition of titles such as big-budget Columbia feature I Spy, season two of Showtime series The Chris Isaak Show, the Discovery docudrama Living with Monsters (about hunting through the ages) and the mammoth alien-abduction miniseries Taken by DreamWorks.
New MGM suspense series Jeremiah with Luke Perry and Malcolm-Jamal Warner started production at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby in September. Also in production in Burnaby is the Warner Bros. series The Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star.

Canadian comedienne deluxe Mary Walsh has signed on to write and star in Devine Entertainment’s first theatrical feature film, Puppy Love. The project marks another first, with Walsh penning her debut theatrical film script.
Puppy Love is a coproduction of Devine and Debbie Nightingale’s Toronto prodco, The Nightingale Company. For Devine, Richard Mozer will act as producer along with the company’s pesident and CEO David Devine, who will also direct.
The bones-to-biscuits tale follows a golden retriever named Giver who becomes the main beneficiary of his deceased master’s multimillion-dollar fortune. Walsh is cast as Florence Van Loon, who, along with fellow family members, schemes up a plan to deny the dog his due.

Montreal: Filming is underway in a fully reconstructed turn-of-the-century village in rural St-Charles de Mandeville on the big-screen adaptation of Claude Henri Grignon’s epoch-making 1939 novel, Un Homme et son peche.
The $5.7-million Cite-Amerique production from director Charles Biname shoots for close to two months through to Nov. 10, resuming production in January in time for a December 2002 release by distributor Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm.

The Gemini writing nomination for an episode of The Outer Limits is the second one for Scott Peters. He was nominated back in 1997 for an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? It’s an ironic turn of events for Peters. He’s always wanted to be a director.

After 18 years of working in the production industry, Cal Coons is finally making a name for himself as the cocreator and executive story editor of the hit Global Television crime series Blue Murder.

Someone might be operating a website on the Internet right now known as [name of your company or product here] sucks.com. There are literally hundreds of websites on the Internet that use trade-names or trademarks belonging to well-known companies together with the word ‘sucks’ (or ‘bites,’ ‘blows,’ ‘I hate’ or some other similarly disparaging term) as their domain names.
‘Sucks’ sites are typically operated by aggrieved customers or employees who want to broadcast their complaints about the target company to the world. Such sites frequently reproduce the trademarks and/or copyright logos of the target entity, often with a red ‘X,’ a slash or the word ‘sucks’ superimposed over the logo. Many of these websites are interactive – in that they encourage others to post their own complaints about the target directly on the website for all to see.

Award-winning, Montreal-based cinematographer Guy Dufaux (a Genie winner for his memorable images in Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal and Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Un Zoo La Nuit) is again in competition, this time for a Gemini. He is nominated in the category of best photography in a dramatic program or series for his stunning visuals in Alliance Atlantis’ four-hour, US$15-million miniseries Haven, which introduces TV viewers to U.S. journalist Ruth Gruber and her heroic struggle to bring nearly 1,000 WWII Jewish refugees to America in 1944.

For Gemini-nominated cinematographer Alain Dostie (best photography in a dramatic program or series for Alliance Atlantis’ four-hour miniseries Nuremberg), the most satisfying aspect of the filmmaking process is collaboration. ‘I don’t think I could ever do something alone. I need to work in a team,’ he says. ‘When a set goes well it’s wonderful. You forget everything.’