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Terry Gilliam
With only 14 productions shooting in Vancouver right now — running the entire spectrum from features and series, to MOWs, animation and reality — it’s welcome news to learn that the Hollywood writers strike is concluding after a long and acrimonious negotiation. With the writers agreeing to a contract that includes a pay raise and compensation for use of their work on the Internet, popular Vancouver skeins such as Supernatural, Smallville and Battlestar Galactica should be able to crank up the production mechanism again within a few weeks, since all maintained their Vancouver sets during the strike. However, no one knows yet when the season will return to normal as far as airings are concerned.
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Ben Stiller
Adams may join Stiller for another Night at the Museum: Meanwhile, here in Vancouver, a handful of new projects are in the offing, including Night At The Museum 2, the sequel to 2006’s Night At The Museum, which also shot in Vancouver. As in the original, the sequel will star Ben Stiller as security guard Larry Daly, along with Dick Van Dyke, and possibly Amy Adams (Charlie Wilson’s War), who is in negotiations to join the cast.
Parnassus fate still indeterminate: The final status on Terry Gilliam’s latest project, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, seems to be flip-flopping from week to week. The film had entered force majeure a couple of weeks back after the tragic death of one of its stars, Heath Ledger, but is now allegedly scheduled to continue lensing without the Dark Knight actor, though we’ve been unable to confirm this conclusively. If production resumes, it is expected to film green screen sequences here in Vancouver, after completing its London shoot. Should filming continue, Gilliam apparently plans to use CGI and digital trickery to work around Ledger’s absence.
Robert Falconer
Robert Falconer is a writer specializing in media communications, entertainment journalism and creative arts. A knowledgeable disciple of film and television, he is the founder and executive editor of CinemaSpy.ca
