thestar.com: On an isolated soundstage in Toronto’s Port Lands, designers have created a dark, futuristic vision.
The bones of New Asia are being created out of brick, steel and Styrofoam in one of the most elaborate set designs ever constructed in the city.
In fact, Total Recall, a remake of the 1990 sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is set to be the most expensive movie in Toronto history. With a budget estimated at anywhere from $130 million to as much as $200 million, once marketing costs are added, the production is a behemoth.
4 comments:
It's really interesting to read about the struggles of the Toronto Film Industry and how they built this massive facility in the middle of the recession. While it could have come back to the bite them, their politicians were able to actually work out some tax breaks for the entertainment industry and put the studio together, and now they are prepared for their comeback with state of the art facilites, and are able to accomodate all these new films. It's a great thing for their film industry and Toronto as a whole and kudos to them for working it out.
There's always a chicken and egg debate about building an industrial base in a city. If there's no soundstage there's little incentive for a film to come in when they'd have to do their soundstage work elsewhere, but at the same time it's hard to get someone to build a soundstage (or other large infrastructure investment) in the hopes of some uncertain future payoff. Toronto illustrates what the payoff could be, in that the films did come, albeit after the soundstage sat idle for a long time. Sticking with it did bring the industry to their city.
The Canadian film industry is an interesting beast. the way the industry there is structured is completely different animal than the modern hollywood studio system. centralized and isolated, the canadian film industry ,especially the industry in toronto, is much more traditional and reflective of the european film circuit. The recent movement to creating facilities for larger productions to come to Canada. this isn't going to happen until the tax rebates match the benefits and overcome the cons of moving productions out of state. this isn't the first time that a single film has saved a localized industry. and it wont be the last.
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