Toronto’s two titans of industry
Cinespace, Pinewood have revitalized TV and film production in Ontario. Can they keep up the pace?
An ancient Roman city is rising up in Toronto’s west end.
Against a massive green-screen backdrop at Cinespace Film Studios’ 60,000square-foot special effects stage on Kipling Ave., the recreated streets and alleyways of 79 A.D. will soon be buried under ash by a massive digital-effects volcano for Pompeii.
It’s Toronto’s first big-budget film production of 2013.
Meanwhile, across the city, it’s a grim vision of the future at Pinewood Toronto Studios, where an eerie glow of fluorescent green and blue permeates Stage 8. On the set of the Canadian indie sci-fi thriller Debug, a spaceship’s crew members are battling for their lives as a killer knocks them off one by one.
Pinewood and Cinespace are two big reasons why Toronto’s and Ontario’s film and television production industry is on a roll, with two successive years of record spending, $1.28 billion in 2012, preceded by $1.26 billion in 2011 — helped by massive Hollywood productions Pacific Rim and Total Recall, respectively. It’s the second year that the city and province have reclaimed the title of Hollywood North from Vancouver and B.C., which led the industry in Canada for more than a decade.
It’s an industry famous for rollercoaster ups and downs, with spending hitting a high of $1.2 billion in 2000 before dropping to half that — about $600 million — in 2008.
But there’s reason to believe stability is the new norm, said Jim Mirkopoulos, Cinespace vice-president, citing “an industry-wide confidence in Ontario’s consistency.
“We like to refer to it as the Canadian maple syrup of destinations. You pour the bottle and the same thing comes out every time: highquality film and television production,” Mirkopoulos said.
Wayne Goodchild, president of IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 873, said times have never been better for its 1,000 members, which includes grips, makeup, costume and set designers, builders and special effects crews.
“We had a record year not only in terms of the number of productions we had under contract but a record year in terms of the amount of money our members earned — the gross wages of our members. We’ve never had a better year than last year (2012),” Goodchild said.
Ontario Film Commissioner Donna Zuchlinski, who has seen the industry evolve over 25 years, cited two main factors for its newfound strength: the “consistency” of the whole package that entices Hollywood studios and an increasing number of U.S. television series and a stable domestic industry, which accounted for almost $700 million of the total in 2012 — providing a solid bulwark against the ebb and flow of foreign production.
“We’ve been really fortunate to have really high-profile films like Pacific Rim . . . but that’s not guaranteed,” Zuchlinski said.
“When you break down our statistics, you see how strong the domestic industry continues to be. Because domestic production is solid from year to year, it really protects the industry from the inevitable ups and downs of (U.S.) production,” Zuchlinski said.
Pinewood and Cinespace are the two titans that loom large in the industry in Toronto. While both companies account for less than one-third of the stage space available province-wide, the two attract the biggest budgeted projects and account for 35 per cent or more of total dollars, an industry source said.
Both companies will have their chance to bask in the theatrical spotlight in 2013.
For Pinewood, that includes Guillermo del Toro’s monsters-vs.-robots adventure Pacific Rim — at upwards of $150 million plus marketing costs, it’s the biggest budget film ever shot in Toronto — set for release on July 12, and the remake of Stephen King’s horror classic Carrie, starring Chloe Moretz, set for release in October. The pricey remake of Robocop, also filmed at Pinewood in 2012, is set for release in early 2014.
City of Bones, filmed last year at Cinespace and based on the first book of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare — a film sure to draw comparison to the widely popular Twilight series — is set to debut in theatres in August. If box office numbers are high, it will spawn a series of sequels based on the remaining books in the series — which could mean more good news for Toronto’s industry.
“It is going to be huge. The people who have read the books are very, very passionate,” said Cinespace’s Mirkopoulos.
In a business that is increasingly international and fiercely competitive, both companies also have different strengths as they vie for business.
Pinewood is the relative newcomer, taking over in mid-2009 the financially troubled former Toronto Filmport Studios, which opened a year earlier when production spending crashed.
Its main 11-acre site on Commissioners St. in the Port Lands area has more than 250,000 square feet of space in 12 purpose-built soundstages, including the 46,000square-foot “mega-stage,” the largest in North America.
Pinewood shares in the cachet of being part of the venerable 75-yearold U.K.-based Pinewood Studios Group— which also has locations in Berlin, the Dominican Republic and Malaysia — best known for the James Bond series and the Harry Potter films. Pinewood Toronto president Blake Steels said the Pinewood name carries a lot of weight internationally.
“This business is about relationships. Total Recall, Pacific Rim and Robocop, those three movies came here as a result of leveraging that relationship with Pinewood,” he said.
Cinespace, celebrating its 25th year in business, has four locations, including its newest, a 30-acre site at 777 Kipling Ave., with three 30,000-square-foot soundstages for television production, a 40,000square-foot special effects stage and ample room for backlot sets, similar to those available in Los Angeles, with a virtually unobstructed skyline for outdoor filming, Mirkopoulos said. NBC Universal has brought five television series, including Warehouse 13, Suits, Alphas, Covert Affairs and, most recently, Defiance — set to debut on the U.S. Syfy channel on April 15. Cinespace also played host to CTV’s Flashpoint during its five-year run at its Eastern Ave. site, also home to the Warner Bros. series Nikita on the CW network. The company recently landed a new television series for Space called Bitten, produced by EOne. For Mirkopoulos, drumming up business means relying on the company’s long track record of delivering great service, going back to the iconic CBC series Road of Avonlea and films like the Oscar-winning Chicago. While the Ontario Media Development Corporation has an office in Los Angeles and offers a range of inducements to bring film and television production here, Mirkopoulos said he does much of the legwork himself, making an average of four sales trips annually to the U.S. “Every project is different in exactly how it comes down the pipe. A large in-studio project such as Pompeii will typically put multiple-facility ‘holds’ all across the city on stages, usually months beforehand, and then decide on the best facility fit in terms of overall space and price package. Calls mostly come in based on previous business experience and existing relationships,” he said. The competition for movie dollars is a high-stakes business. Cinespace is embroiled in a three-year legal battle against Toronto and its development body, TEDCO, alleging it has given an unfair advantage to its main competitor, Pinewood, through millions in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Cinespace refused comment on the issue. For its part, Pinewood, while still seeking out the big Hollywood “tentpole” films, is working to attract more Canadian productions, in both the lucrative domestic television market but also the independent movie industry, such as the just-wrapped production Debug. Veteran actor and Debug director Steven Hewlett said Pinewood “bent over backwards” — including use of the mega-stage — to have the low-budget feature film there. “In the indie world, you’re used to shooting in close-to-derelict studios. As a filmmaker, you suddenly feel legitimate. You say Pinewood Studios and everybody goes ‘ohmigod, you’re at Pinewood.’ They are very wisely supporting local production,” Hewlett said. But as global competition intensifies, it will be a struggle for Toronto and Ontario to maintain the pace of production spending of the past two years. “It’s tightened up completely and what that means for us is that we have to be sharp with our pencils,” Steels said, noting the company is still seeking its first tentpole production for 2013. Part of the reason is that the major U.S. studios aren’t making decisions until full financing is in place, reducing the amount of time it takes to green-light a film from six months to a year to as little as three months, Steels said. “In the past, (studios) would lock in months in advance. Now it’s down to just weeks beforehand when they say, ‘yeah we’re going to go,’ ” Steels said. Zuchlinski acknowledged 2013 is off to a slow start for the industry, with few major projects announced. “We are scouting some bigger pictures. We’re scouting quite actively for projects for the summer and fall. Nothing we can talk about yet. It’s too early. We’re optimistic about this year, that we’re hopeful for a similar level.” Goodchild remains confident that the industry is competitive in the city and the province, and that employment levels will remain high. “We’ve got great crews, we’ve got more studio space now than we’ve ever had. So I can’t see anything on the horizon . . . that would jeopardize the work that is coming here. It’s always going to ebb and flow a little bit, but generally we’re in a good spot right now,” Goodchild said. Producer J. Miles Dale ( Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Mama) agreed the city’s industry remains a stable, attractive location for film and television. “They (filmmakers) know when they come to Toronto, it’s ‘just add water.’ You bring a director, bring a couple of actors and it’s all here, the people are here, the equipment is here, the locations are here. It’s all in place and there’s not going to be any surprises. That’s really important,” he said.