The dollar’s at par, the weather is stinkin’ hot and the recent G20 summit reduced Toronto to a traffic-snarled lock down zone. So what’s with all the TV production trucks?
Hogtown has once again become Hollywood North. TV production is booming across the GTA and even beyond into Hamilton, Orangeville and Port Hope.
Some are American cable shows that may never air in Canada. The U.S. cable network Syfy, owned by NBC Universal, has two Toronto-based shows currently in production—Alphas and Warehouse 13—with another, Haven (which premieres July 12 on Showcase), based in Halifax.
Lost Girl (above right), which will launch in September on Showcase, is a Canada first effort. The series stars New Brunswick native Anna Silk (Erica’s same sex temptation last season on Being Erica) as a crime bustin’ succubus. Spoke to co-showrunner and executive producer Peter Mohan on the set of the series in his stealth studio in south Etobicoke and he gave me plenty of scoop on the whole busy shoot-in-Toronto deal.
Part of it is due to the generous tax incentives provided through the Ontario Media Development Corporation, TV trucks have been clogging up Hamilton neighbourhoods, too. The sci-fi thriller Blood of Pegasus, starring Nazneen Contractor and Rae Dawn Chong, wrapped there in May with Shannen Doherty booking into Steeltown in June to shoot the Canwest/Syfy TV movie Witchslayer. Lost Girl was also found on some Hamilton streets this spring.
Have a story in today’s Toronto Star listing all the activity. Read the full feature here.
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