What Is HNR?

Based in Vancouver and founded in 2003, Hollywood North Report (HNR) is Canada’s preeminent online film & TV news source. Focusing primarily on the country’s two most active filming centers, Toronto and Vancouver – the latter being the third largest production center in the world after Los Angeles and New York – HNR is nevertheless committed to providing motion picture and television news from all regions of Canada.

With more than 30,000 unique visits to our website every day, HNR offers up-to-date news and inside scoops that appeal to industry professionals, show business adherents and film & TV fans, emphasizing both foreign and domestic projects being shot in Canada. Moreover, HNR also provides features, interviews, reviews and contests, along with a growing number of dedicated subsections that take you inside the biggest television series shooting in Vancouver.

On occasion, HNR also serves as a media co-sponsor of select industry events here in Vancouver.

Who is HNR?

Mark Sommer, HNR Editor-in-Chief
Michael Stevens, HNR Senior Editor, East
Jim Iaccino, HNR Associate Editor
Vince D’Amato, HNR Special Contributor
Paul Duchart, Site Photographer

General HNR Contact: hnr@hollywoodnorthreport.com

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Contact Mark by Email: mark@hollywoodnorthreport.com

HNR began with one man’s vision. A vision for a film and TV news website that not only reported on Canada’s robust film & television production industry, but that also covered what was happening with both foreign and domestic projects from a Canadian perspective – something sorely lacking on other entertainment news sites. Striving for a hybrid that combined the best of news sites like CHUD, Dark Horizons, Coming Soon and JoBlo, along with detailed locally-produced series information akin to some of the best fan sites, HNR founder and Editor-in-Chief Mark Sommer set about creating Canada’s premier film & TV news source.

Being a proud member of that rare breed of people born and bred in Vancouver, Mark grew up in the shadows of Hollywood North during the 80s and has never felt the need to leave the beautiful west coast city for more than a month or so. Early run-in’s with stars on the sets of MacGyver, 21 Jump Street, Booker and Look Who's Talking instilled in Mark a passion for the art of filmmaking and storytelling, and a deep appreciation of its importance to his hometown.

A one-year stint at a suburban Vancouver company that disposed of, stored and rented out film sets took Mark “inside” a number of productions and provided a behind-the-scenes perspective that helped further nurture his love of filmmaking. From his time on the sets of The X-Files, Outer Limits, Highlander and M.A.N.T.I.S., to movies like Free Willy 3, Masterminds and more, he had a great time working for Cin-Sal.

Some of the filmmakers that have heavily influenced his outlook on all things film and TV include Stephen Spielberg, Joe Dante, Richard Donner, Jon Landis, Robert Zemekis and Terry Gilliam. Mark has a passion for well-directed character driven storytelling. Period. And if the movie stars Corey Feldman…well, all the better. Though we’re still not quite sure why.

Now in his mid-twenties, Mark currently has a number of film and reality television projects in various stages of development in addition to his daily responsibilities for HNR. Mark’s duties as the site’s Editor-in-Chief are almost too numerous to list, but include creative direction, news, feature and image acquisitions, contest administration, editorial oversight, and that ever-popular activity known as site management.

Contact Michael by Email: michael@hollywoodnorthreport.com

Michael attended Toronto's Forest Hill Collegiate and York University, with a major in Fine Arts Film.

After writing/producing radio dramas for campus station CKRY, Michael was hired as National News Editor for RPM Magazine (creators of Canada's 'Juno' music awards).

Michael went on to become an assistant director, theme composer, SFX make-up designer and film producer, working various crew categories for Roger Corman-produced 'genre' features in Canada and California.

To date, Michael has appeared in over 500 productions as a film performer. He is a 30-year member of Canadian performers union 'ACTRA' (Alliance of Canadian, Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) and a 3-time member-elected Councillor.

Since 1999, Michael has been an award-winning web designer/digital marketer, promoting major studio fare through Command Entertainment websites, serving as Webmaster of film news site www.sneakpeek.ca since 2001. Michael is HNR’s eyes and ears in Toronto, Canada’s largest city and still considered by many to be its cultural center.

Michael is primarily responsible for sourcing, disseminating and reporting on film and television news coming out of Ontario and, to a lesser extent, eastern Canada, including Montreal and Quebec.

Contact Jim by Email: jimiaccino@msn.com

Jim Iaccino is a Professor in Psychology and Film Studies at Benedictine University in the western suburbs of Chicago. He obtained his masters and doctoral degrees in psychology at DePaul University in Chicago and has been teaching in the university setting for over 20 years. He is one of the faculty responsible for starting the Film Studies minor, which includes courses on Jungian archetypes within film as well as a Screenwriting Seminar (all of which are taught by Jim).

Jim has written several texts on archetypes within film: specifically, "Psychological Reflections on Cinematic Terror: Jungian Archetypes in Horror Films" (Praeger Press, 1994) as well as "Jungian Reflections within the Cinema: A Psychological Analysis of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Archetypes" (Praeger Press, 1998).

Most recently, he has been applying archetypes to international films of the horror genre and has been able to include entries within the on-line journal of films in the New Europe, Kinoeye.

Jim has authored numerous articles on classic as well as contemporary television shows (e.g., Babylon 5, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Farscape, Forever Knight, and Space: 1999) in several noteworthy journals, including Studies in Popular Culture and Journal of Popular Culture.

He has also penned a screenplay entitled The Vidbond Connection, which essentially deals with modern-day vampires using a dating service to obtain fresh blood.

In what qualifies for his spare time, Jim moderates several boards on SCI FI's new Battlestar Galactica series and has written episode reviews of the show's first and second season. He has also made regular appearances on Shaunomac's internet show, Subject2Discussion.

As of summer 2005, Jim has joined the staff of HNR as an Associate Editor, where he will cover a number of topics, with emphasis on Battlestar Galactica, The 4400 and The Dead Zone television series.

Contact Vince by Email: vince@creepysixfilms.com

Vince was born in Vancouver, B.C. sometime back in the 70s. Though he completed a condensed curriculum of the Creative Writing Program at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University in the 90s, he is a self-taught filmmaker, editor, and screenwriter. His filmmaking bug really began in 1998 when he became involved in an independent production titled The Faculty in Austin, Texas, where he had a chance to meet and work with producer Elizabeth Avelan (Spy Kids 1 & 2) and director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City).

In the fall of 1998, Vince began to shoot his own independent film, an unfinished vampire opus titled Jenny Jacks. Vince had a professional camera operator teach him how to use & operate the 16-millimeter Arriflex film camera. In 2001, Vince worked briefly as a volunteer and representative for the independent schlock-movie company TROMA in Cannes, Santa Monica and Victoria (yes, Victoria, B.C.)

Vince’s Vancouver-based film production company Creepy Six Films is totally independent and Canadian, the main focus being horror features (hence the name). Using all this erratic filmmaking and film-marketing experience as a launching pad, Vince has since produced, written, edited, shot, and directed three commercial feature films in the horror genre – Vampires vs. Zombies, Human Nature, and Hell Hath No Fury, all of which have received worldwide video and television distribution. Since 2004, Vince also directed two music videos, an environmental documentary, and has been hired to write and/or edit several other projects – including videos for the popular American metal band Necrophagia and the upcoming horror feature from Plotdigger Films in Vancouver, Live Feed.

A huge fan of all sorts of movies for as long as he can remember, Vince currently prefers Asian and European films. His favorite genre will always lean towards horror, although he does acquire guilty pleasure from 70’s-era exploitation movies of all kinds – Dirty Harry to Rock ‘n Roll High School. (He’s also been an avid fan of The Ramones for almost 20 years now).

To date, Vince has written over 200 film, DVD & media reviews for Hollywood North Report.

Contact Paul by Email: paul@hollywoodnorthreport.com

A graduate of Carleton University’s Film Studies program, Toronto-born celebrity photographer Paul Duchart discovered the rush of meeting and photographing celebrities in 1990, when he made his debut during the Queen’s visit to Ottawa. He stealthily caught a picture of Her Majesty with Brian Mulroney – the first in what would become a voluminous collection of celebrity photos, ranging from musicians to actors to politicians.

Paul moved to Vancouver in 1993, just as the city’s film and music industry began to flourish, evolving his love for photography into a career. Since then he has photographed hundreds of rock stars, including Bryan Adams, U2, Kiss, Beck, Sarah MacLachlan, Leonard Cohen, Michael Stipe, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Justin Timberlake. Among the many movie stars Duchart has photographed are Robin Williams, Sharon Stone, Adam Sandler, Cher, Ben Affleck, Sylvester Stallone and Christian Slater. His photographs have been published in a variety of newspapers, including The Toronto Star, The Vancouver Sun, The Vancouver Province and The Georgia Straight, as well as such diverse magazines as Vancouver Lifestyles, Yaletown View, Ion, US and People. The photographs that fill Duchart’s portfolio are usually autographed close-ups of posing celebrities, often taken on film sets, in hotel lobbies, or during soundchecks. While these are meaningful to Duchart – a star-struck fan at heart – it is his paparazzi shots that are sold and seen the most.

Paul’s work has also appeared on Vancouver’s Citytv entertainment report where he has been featured several times and to whom he also supplies photos. With a keen eye towards Vancouver’s hottest cultural venues and high-profile events, Paul has covered industry parties and galas, book and magazine launches, and is a regular contributor to Vancouver’s Fashion Magazine, for whom he has photographed everything from talent agency parties to a Lancome product launch. In 2003/04 he served as official photographer of the Vancouver International Film Festival (see a selection of his photos on their official website, www.viff.org).

Paul recently teamed up with photo agent Louie D., a successful paparazzi from Toronto featured on Life Network’s Paparazzi television series.

Paul is HNR’s chief photographer (under the psedenom “Photoboy”), often furnishing our readers with first-look photos from some of Vancouver’s biggest productions, or impromptu shots of celebrities.