Kate Beckinsale can be seen in a futuristic cop car as the film shoot blocked traffic on Lake Shore Blvd. for four days in July 2011.
The mega soundstage, North America's largest, at Pinewood Studios Toronto.
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.
It is also a watershed moment for Toronto moviemaking. As the cast, including Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale, wrapped the shoot here Thursday after more than six months of production and filming, it may well be remembered as the movie that saved the Toronto film industry.
If you had trouble getting a carpenter to build your deck this summer, blame Total Recall. If you had trouble getting to work on Lake Shore Blvd., you can blame Total Recall too. The shoot blocked off traffic for four days.
From the money that Farrell has dropped at yoga classes, to Biel’s penchant for fine dining in the city with on-and-off-again boyfriend Justin Timberlake, the production, directly and indirectly, has had an enormous impact.
Either way, it was hard to escape the movie’s deep economic gravity.
“This has been a total game changer,” says Paul Bronfman, chair of Pinewood Toronto Studios, in an interview. “We have come through some dark days to get here.”
Because of Total Recall, the city is on track to hit close to a billion dollars in production value this year, a record.
That’s compared with $726 million in 2010. The peak year, according to Toronto Film and Television Office figures, was 2001, when production hit $928 million, before a soaring Canadian dollar and SARS crippled the once high-flying industry. (Adjusted for inflation, 2001’s figures equal $1.135 billion in today’s dollars.)
Peter Finestone, the city’s film commissioner, calls Total Recall the first big “tentpole” to hit the city.
“This was equivalent to the big top, or the whole circus moving to town and taking over,” says Finestone. “This movie has had an enormous impact to everyone, from people who put the cones on the street to protect parking spaces, to lighting, to sound and camera people to guys who run the catering trucks.”
Monty Montgomerie, business manager for IATSE local 873, which represents film industry workers, says the movie will have paid its members a significant $25 million in wages alone since production first started in March — that’s equivalent to the entire budget of some Hollywood movies.
During peak production, the project employed up to 600 workers from one local. There were more than 300 carpenters on set — more than most housing developments — on some days.
“These are good quality, well-paying jobs,” said Montgomerie. “This has had a massive impact.”
The previous record holder for a movie filmed in the city was 2007’s The Incredible Hulk, starring Ed Norton, with a budget estimated to be anywhere from $100 to $150 million. But unlike Hulk, virtually every scene of Total Recall was shot in Toronto on Pinewood’s soundstages or on location at buildings such as Commerce Court in the financial district, or at the University of Toronto, so much more of the money stays here.
RIPPLE EFFECT
Economists talk a lot about the multiplier effect, where one dollar spent in a restaurant, for example, can have a ripple through the economy as the server spends his tips on other goods and services, which in turn creates more demand and causes more employment beyond the initial investment.
“The money that’s put into the system is spent again and it tends to grow,” said Michael Harker, a senior partner at Toronto based Enigma Research, which specializes in economic impact of special events.
The impact of the film industry is similar to tourism because the hospitality sector, such as hotels, rental cars and catering, is directly affected. But because it also hires a vast, specialized crew, it can be much broader-based, said Harker.
If Total Recall spent just a quarter of its estimated budget, or $50 million, in Toronto, the economic impact would be roughly equivalent to Pride Week, or the 11-day Toronto International Film Festival, according to the consultant.
“It would be pretty huge. This is money that may have gone to New York or Los Angeles, but not Toronto,” said Harker.
BLEEDING MONEY
This has been a fortuitous turnaround for the film industry.
In 2008 it hit a low of $499 million, when the massive, state-of-the-art Pinewood facility officially opened its doors.
“That was the worst year ever. We opened right in the middle of a recession,” said Bronfman.
A high Canadian dollar, a global credit crunch, and competing jurisdictions in North America over tax credits torpedoed the aspirations of Hollywood North, and studio moguls like Bronfman were bleeding money.
“This is no different than a large hotel. If you have empty rooms you can’t gain that revenue back, and this is a very capital-intensive business,” said Bronfman.
Pinewood, situated on a 4.5-hectare site, was built on the premise that the city needed a mega soundstage, one that would attract big productions such as the one at Pinewood London, home of the Harry Potter and James Bond movies.
So they built a 46,000-square-foot soundstage, North America’s largest — large enough to fit the Greek Parthenon — and waited. But nobody came. And the Canadian dollar steadily crept upward, from a low of 62 cents U.S. in 2002 to above par at one point in 2008.
Pinewood limped along, using the giant mega stage for TV reality shows such as Battle of the Blades. But that barely paid the bills.
Critics said the facility was a white elephant and should never have been built in the first place.
The City of Toronto is a 20 per cent shareholder in Pinewood, formerly called Filmport, so taxpayers were on the hook. The other owners include Bronfman, Castlepoint Realty Partners, and ROI Capital.
THE REBOUND
The turnaround started when the provincial government helped make the city more competitive by upping tax credits in 2009 and making them permanent. And along the way, tax credits from competing areas such as New Mexico and Los Angeles dried up or were capped as the U.S. economy soured.
And so, even though the Canadian dollar lingered above par, Total Recall came along. A combination of tax credits, the availability of a mega stage, and well-trained film crews sealed the deal.
“It’s something of a vindication. We wouldn’t have had that movie here if Pinewood wasn’t built. This is entirely new money that is going into the city,” said Finestone.
Neil Clarence, a media and entertainment consultant with Ernst & Young based in Vancouver, says the mega stage was important in attracting studios to come to Ontario, but tax credits were key.
“The single biggest factor for a studio is cost,” said Clarence. Calls from Hollywood clients inquiring about filming in Ontario have increased, he said.
The province’s 25-per-cent tax credit on all expenses (it used to be just on labour) was an important step that is now bearing fruit at the expense of other Canadian locations such as Vancouver, which has not matched those credits, said Clarence.
“It’s taken a while to kick in, but you’re seeing the fruit of that legislation and infrastructure attract business,” he said.
More importantly, Total Recall has put Toronto on the map again, said Pinewood’s Bronfman. There are an estimated 25,000 workers in the film industry in Toronto alone who depend on attracting new productions.
“The fact that we have had such a large production here has upped the marquee value for the city. Other productions are looking here because of that.”
Dan Heffner can attest to that. The Los Angeles-based executive producer of the Saw horror movie franchise, says not a week goes by when a colleague asks what it’s like to shoot in Toronto.
“There seems to be the kind of interest that I haven’t seen before, from studios and from independent producers,” said Heffner.
As a former executive with Disney, Heffner has had a long-term relationship with the city, bringing Three Men and a Baby and Cocktail to Toronto in the 1980s. He has produced 13 movies in the last nine years, with 10 of them shot here. But with production crews busier than ever, he worries about getting good staff when he starts to shoot his romantic comedy The Prince Test this winter.
“It is a bit of a worry because everyone is so tied up, and the resources are being strained, but I guess that’s the price of success.”
THE FUTURE
Already booked for this fall is Spanish director Guillermo del Toro’s special effects-laden monster movie Pacific Rim, also known as Still Seas. The six-month shoot is rumoured to have a budget of more than $150 million.
And in October, another installment of the sci-fi horror series Resident Evil is set to roll.
The city is also seeing a lot of television production shoots, including Flashpoint, Combat Hospital, Nikita and Covert Affairs.
Meanwhile, Bronfman says he is cash-flow positive on his studio for the first time since he’s owned it. He’s also upwardly revised his projections three times this year.
“It feels really good to say this. We’re back in business. The city is back in business.”
Total Reaction
The economic impact of Total Recall on one union: Toronto’s IATSE Local 873 has more than 2,000 members involved in various aspects of filmmaking, from carpenters to hair and makeup to art directors and sound technicians.
• 45,000 days worked.
• $25 million in wages to members of the union
• During peak shooting days, the movie employed 500 to 600 workers per day
Yep, even more possible casting news for Len Wisemen’s upcoming remake of the 1990 flick Total Recall. We are moving ever closer to finding our female lead for the remake or perhaps another woman in the film.
Last month it was announced that a slew of actresses, Eva Mendes, Kate Bosworth, Paula Patton and Jessica Biel were circling various roles for the movie.
Well according to Variety, it seems as if Biel is very close to signing on to play one of two female leads in the film. One being Lori who was originally played by Sharon Stone and the other Mellina, who was played by Rachel Ticotin. Apparently Sony has offered her a role, but no news as to which one she has been offered.
The Total Recall remake is set to be directed by Len Wiseman with Colin Farrell playing the role of Douglas Quaid and Bryan Cranston attached to play the Villain. Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe will produce with Mark Bomback and James Vanderbilt writing the script.
Columbia Pictures is gearing for a August 3, 2012 theatrical release.
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.
It is also a watershed moment for Toronto moviemaking. As the cast, including Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale, wrapped the shoot here Thursday after more than six months of production and filming, it may well be remembered as the movie that saved the Toronto film industry.
If you had trouble getting a carpenter to build your deck this summer, blame Total Recall. If you had trouble getting to work on Lake Shore Blvd., you can blame Total Recall too. The shoot blocked off traffic for four days.
From the money that Farrell has dropped at yoga classes, to Biel’s penchant for fine dining in the city with on-and-off-again boyfriend Justin Timberlake, the production, directly and indirectly, has had an enormous impact.
Either way, it was hard to escape the movie’s deep economic gravity.
“This has been a total game changer,” says Paul Bronfman, chair of Pinewood Toronto Studios, in an interview. “We have come through some dark days to get here.”
Because of Total Recall, the city is on track to hit close to a billion dollars in production value this year, a record.
That’s compared with $726 million in 2010. The peak year, according to Toronto Film and Television Office figures, was 2001, when production hit $928 million, before a soaring Canadian dollar and SARS crippled the once high-flying industry. (Adjusted for inflation, 2001’s figures equal $1.135 billion in today’s dollars.)
Peter Finestone, the city’s film commissioner, calls Total Recall the first big “tentpole” to hit the city.
“This was equivalent to the big top, or the whole circus moving to town and taking over,” says Finestone. “This movie has had an enormous impact to everyone, from people who put the cones on the street to protect parking spaces, to lighting, to sound and camera people to guys who run the catering trucks.”
Monty Montgomerie, business manager for IATSE local 873, which represents film industry workers, says the movie will have paid its members a significant $25 million in wages alone since production first started in March — that’s equivalent to the entire budget of some Hollywood movies.
During peak production, the project employed up to 600 workers from one local. There were more than 300 carpenters on set — more than most housing developments — on some days.
“These are good quality, well-paying jobs,” said Montgomerie. “This has had a massive impact.”
The previous record holder for a movie filmed in the city was 2007’s The Incredible Hulk, starring Ed Norton, with a budget estimated to be anywhere from $100 to $150 million. But unlike Hulk, virtually every scene of Total Recall was shot in Toronto on Pinewood’s soundstages or on location at buildings such as Commerce Court in the financial district, or at the University of Toronto, so much more of the money stays here.
RIPPLE EFFECT
Economists talk a lot about the multiplier effect, where one dollar spent in a restaurant, for example, can have a ripple through the economy as the server spends his tips on other goods and services, which in turn creates more demand and causes more employment beyond the initial investment.
“The money that’s put into the system is spent again and it tends to grow,” said Michael Harker, a senior partner at Toronto based Enigma Research, which specializes in economic impact of special events.
The impact of the film industry is similar to tourism because the hospitality sector, such as hotels, rental cars and catering, is directly affected. But because it also hires a vast, specialized crew, it can be much broader-based, said Harker.
If Total Recall spent just a quarter of its estimated budget, or $50 million, in Toronto, the economic impact would be roughly equivalent to Pride Week, or the 11-day Toronto International Film Festival, according to the consultant.
“It would be pretty huge. This is money that may have gone to New York or Los Angeles, but not Toronto,” said Harker.
BLEEDING MONEY
This has been a fortuitous turnaround for the film industry.
In 2008 it hit a low of $499 million, when the massive, state-of-the-art Pinewood facility officially opened its doors.
“That was the worst year ever. We opened right in the middle of a recession,” said Bronfman.
A high Canadian dollar, a global credit crunch, and competing jurisdictions in North America over tax credits torpedoed the aspirations of Hollywood North, and studio moguls like Bronfman were bleeding money.
“This is no different than a large hotel. If you have empty rooms you can’t gain that revenue back, and this is a very capital-intensive business,” said Bronfman.
Pinewood, situated on a 4.5-hectare site, was built on the premise that the city needed a mega soundstage, one that would attract big productions such as the one at Pinewood London, home of the Harry Potter and James Bond movies.
So they built a 46,000-square-foot soundstage, North America’s largest — large enough to fit the Greek Parthenon — and waited. But nobody came. And the Canadian dollar steadily crept upward, from a low of 62 cents U.S. in 2002 to above par at one point in 2008.
Pinewood limped along, using the giant mega stage for TV reality shows such as Battle of the Blades. But that barely paid the bills.
Critics said the facility was a white elephant and should never have been built in the first place.
The City of Toronto is a 20 per cent shareholder in Pinewood, formerly called Filmport, so taxpayers were on the hook. The other owners include Bronfman, Castlepoint Realty Partners, and ROI Capital.
THE REBOUND
The turnaround started when the provincial government helped make the city more competitive by upping tax credits in 2009 and making them permanent. And along the way, tax credits from competing areas such as New Mexico and Los Angeles dried up or were capped as the U.S. economy soured.
And so, even though the Canadian dollar lingered above par, Total Recall came along. A combination of tax credits, the availability of a mega stage, and well-trained film crews sealed the deal.
“It’s something of a vindication. We wouldn’t have had that movie here if Pinewood wasn’t built. This is entirely new money that is going into the city,” said Finestone.
Neil Clarence, a media and entertainment consultant with Ernst & Young based in Vancouver, says the mega stage was important in attracting studios to come to Ontario, but tax credits were key.
“The single biggest factor for a studio is cost,” said Clarence. Calls from Hollywood clients inquiring about filming in Ontario have increased, he said.
The province’s 25-per-cent tax credit on all expenses (it used to be just on labour) was an important step that is now bearing fruit at the expense of other Canadian locations such as Vancouver, which has not matched those credits, said Clarence.
“It’s taken a while to kick in, but you’re seeing the fruit of that legislation and infrastructure attract business,” he said.
More importantly, Total Recall has put Toronto on the map again, said Pinewood’s Bronfman. There are an estimated 25,000 workers in the film industry in Toronto alone who depend on attracting new productions.
“The fact that we have had such a large production here has upped the marquee value for the city. Other productions are looking here because of that.”
Dan Heffner can attest to that. The Los Angeles-based executive producer of the Saw horror movie franchise, says not a week goes by when a colleague asks what it’s like to shoot in Toronto.
“There seems to be the kind of interest that I haven’t seen before, from studios and from independent producers,” said Heffner.
As a former executive with Disney, Heffner has had a long-term relationship with the city, bringing Three Men and a Baby and Cocktail to Toronto in the 1980s. He has produced 13 movies in the last nine years, with 10 of them shot here. But with production crews busier than ever, he worries about getting good staff when he starts to shoot his romantic comedy The Prince Test this winter.
“It is a bit of a worry because everyone is so tied up, and the resources are being strained, but I guess that’s the price of success.”
THE FUTURE
Already booked for this fall is Spanish director Guillermo del Toro’s special effects-laden monster movie Pacific Rim, also known as Still Seas. The six-month shoot is rumoured to have a budget of more than $150 million.
And in October, another installment of the sci-fi horror series Resident Evil is set to roll.
The city is also seeing a lot of television production shoots, including Flashpoint, Combat Hospital, Nikita and Covert Affairs.
Meanwhile, Bronfman says he is cash-flow positive on his studio for the first time since he’s owned it. He’s also upwardly revised his projections three times this year.
“It feels really good to say this. We’re back in business. The city is back in business.”
Total Reaction
The economic impact of Total Recall on one union: Toronto’s IATSE Local 873 has more than 2,000 members involved in various aspects of filmmaking, from carpenters to hair and makeup to art directors and sound technicians.
• 45,000 days worked.
• $25 million in wages to members of the union
• During peak shooting days, the movie employed 500 to 600 workers per day
Jessica Biel Starring in Total Recall Remake
Yep, even more possible casting news for Len Wisemen’s upcoming remake of the 1990 flick Total Recall. We are moving ever closer to finding our female lead for the remake or perhaps another woman in the film.Last month it was announced that a slew of actresses, Eva Mendes, Kate Bosworth, Paula Patton and Jessica Biel were circling various roles for the movie.
Well according to Variety, it seems as if Biel is very close to signing on to play one of two female leads in the film. One being Lori who was originally played by Sharon Stone and the other Mellina, who was played by Rachel Ticotin. Apparently Sony has offered her a role, but no news as to which one she has been offered.
The Total Recall remake is set to be directed by Len Wiseman with Colin Farrell playing the role of Douglas Quaid and Bryan Cranston attached to play the Villain. Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe will produce with Mark Bomback and James Vanderbilt writing the script.
Columbia Pictures is gearing for a August 3, 2012 theatrical release.
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