VANCOUVER, May 15, 2002 -- Laura Lightbown has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Haddock Entertainment. Formerly head of business affairs with the Vancouver-based production house and financing producer on DaVinci's Inquest, Lightbown assumes her new role effective immediately, according to President and founder, Chris Haddock.

The announcement signals a busy year ahead for Haddock Entertainment. The fifth season of the CBC series Da Vinci's Inquest begins shooting next month. There is also the upcoming Movie-of-the-Week for CTV entitled ODD SQUAD, slated to star Bruce Greenwood (The Magnificent Ambersons, Thirteen Days, The Sweet Hereafter) and directed by Steven Surjik (Wayne's World 2, Little Criminals, Da Vinci's Inquest). Scheduled for production in January, 2003, the project is a co-production with Sarrazin-Couture Entertainment Inc.

Bruce Greenwood will star in movie directed by Lynne Stopkewich.

Vancouver Province Sunday, January 12, 2003 Cameras rolling again in 2003 More work for local actors and crews after very slow year by David Spaner The Province

Three heavyweight Vancouver talents are joining forces this year to film a tough crime drama set in the Downtown Eastside.

Actor Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy), director Lynne Stopkewich (Kissed) and producer Chris Haddock (Da Vinci's Inquest) will start shooting in January a CTV movie about beat cops tentatively titled Skid Road.

"It's an opportunity to put Lynne Stopkewich and Bruce Greenwood together, which promises a real exciting process," says Haddock. "It'll be intense."

It's also an opportunity for actors and crews following a slow year in which a decrease in TV-movie production, competition from other locales and a generally down economy caused Vancouver actors' income to fall 30 per cent, unemployment among some film-worker sectors to reach 50 per cent and film spending in B.C. to drop below $1 billion for the first time since 1998.

"We're looking at a major improvement in the first part of the year, we're looking at going pretty well flat-out by, I would say, April, May," predicts Tom Adair, spokesman for the B.C. Council of Film Unions.

Stopkewich and Haddock come from the Canadian side of the local industry, which promises a productive year with theatrical releases from directors such as Mina Shum (Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity), Guy Bennett (Punch) and Keith Behrman (Flower & Garnet). As well, several Vancouver directors have recently wrapped films that will likely arrive on screen this year: Trent Carlson (The Delicate Art of Parking), Nathaniel Geary (On the Corner), Carl Bessai (Emile), Pete McCormack (Come Fly Away) and Damon Vignales (Little War).