Netflix to shoot new sci-fi series in Surrey
Big-budget production will be first at newly opened Skydance Studios
Skydance Studios, the state-ofthe-art film production facility in Surrey that gets its grand, ribboncutting opening on Tuesday, will be home base for an ambitious, big-budget Netflix science fiction series.
Skydance Media, the Californiabased film and television production company behind big-budget Hollywood fare like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Star Trek Beyond, both filmed in Vancouver, converted the former Pacific Newspaper Group’s printing press building in Kennedy Heights (12091 88th Ave.) into a five soundstage studio that can accommodate a production staff of up to 400 people.
The first major production to take up residence in the facility will be Altered Carbon, a 10-episode Netflix series adaptation of author Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 cyber-punk science fiction novel of the same name.
Altered Carbon is set in a future where consciousness is digitized and stored in cortical stacks implanted in the spine, allowing humans to survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness “re-sleeved” into new bodies. Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, Suicide Squad, House of Cards) stars as a specially trained soldier who is downloaded from an off-world prison and into the body of a disgraced cop.
Kinnaman, who filmed four seasons of The Killing in Vancouver, told Yahoo News earlier this year that the series will be Netflix’s biggest endeavour yet.
“They’re really going to be able to create a world that’s got a bigger budget than the first three seasons of Game of Thrones,” Kinnaman said.
“It’s going to be something special. It’s something that’s never been done before, and I’m a big fan of intelligent sci-fi. To see a sci-fi show that’s a hard R-rated sci-fi show with a big budget, so they’re really going to be able to create this entire world … I just started drooling at that possibility.”
The City of Surrey has said Skydance Media estimates the new studio will bring in $100 million per year of regional economic spinoffs at full production.
“There’s economic spinoffs in every direction, whether it’s food or hairdressing or rental equipment. The studio will make a big difference even in the sheer number of people here. That’s a huge economic spinoff industry itself,” Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner said in May. “In Vancouver, people can’t even get into the studio space.”
Oliver Lum, communications manager for the City of Surrey, said so far this year the municipality has already hit a new record number of film permits.
In 2015, a record year, the city handed out 97 permits to shoot film and television productions in the city. So far this year staff have handed out 150 permits.
He said Skydance is a major studio that will likely help ease Metro Vancouver’s studio space shortage, which has been caused by the unprecedented number of productions being shot in Hollywood North.
James Monk, film liaison for the City of Surrey, said it’s on a roll this year with new productions, noting that since Jan. 1 Surrey has seen 219 film days. That compares with 193 for all of 2015.
“If we continue at the same pace we’re at, we’ll be close to doubling what we had in 2015.”
Monk said Skydance will “really showcase that Surrey is a desirable location for productions to film in,” with assets including “business parks, urban areas, and a gamut of locations” that can replicate locales in California or Europe.
“And we know Skydance will hire a lot of people.”
According to the Director’s Guild of Canada’s production list, there are 61 film and television productions either underway, wrapping up or about to start in Metro Vancouver.
The City of Vancouver reports a 45 per cent increase in movie and TV production so far in 2016 compared with 2015.
Hollywood studios have been lured to Vancouver by the lower Canadian dollar and B.C. film tax subsidies.
Film and television productions in B.C. receive production services tax credits of 33 per cent and digital animation/visual effects credits of 17.5 per cent.
However, Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced in May that those subsidies would be scaled back to 28 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively, come Oct. 1.
Altered Carbon begins production at Surrey’s Skydance Studios on Nov. 14.
They’re really going to be able to create a world that’s got a bigger budget than the first three seasons of Game of Thrones. It’s going to be something special.