According to Toronto film commissioner David Plant, now comfortably ensconced in the mayor’s office, business in the city is booming this year.

So far in 1994, there has been a 98% increase in production spending and a 65% increase in shooting days over the same period last year. To date, 35 productions (feature films, tv movies and tv series) have either wrapped or are still in production, up from 22 at this time last year.

And things are looking good for the summer with a number of shows scouting around. Plant says most of the first quarter projects still in production will wrap May through June, leaving plenty of good people available for the summer.

Doc talk

there’s also plenty of doc work going on in Toronto these days.

Associated Producers’ Simcha Jacobovici and Elliot Halpern, whose Deadly Currents won the 1992 Genie for best feature documentary, are hard at work on two new projects slated to air next year.

Plague Monkeys, produced for cbc’s Witness series, explores new Andromeda Strain-type viruses and is slotted for the fall ’95 season. Shooting for the project, which is now in post, took place in Africa, Germany and the u.s. (Deadly Currents coproducer Ric Bienstock directed the African segments).

Jacobovici and Halpern hit the road again May 1 when they leave for the Arctic Circle to begin production on Northern Justice, slated as the lead program in tvontario’s The View from Here documentary series. The documentary explores the fly-in circuit court in Canada’s North.

Producer/writer/director James Cullingham of Tamarack Productions, creator of the series As Long As The Rivers Flow, is also working on a documentary for tvo’s View From Here series: Duncan Campbell Scott: The Poet and the Indians, with actor R.H. Thompson appearing as Scott, is in the midst of production with the National Film Board Ontario Centre.

As well, Tamarack and producer Garth Douglas have formed World Film Headquarters International to work on a project that came together in an interesting manner. Toronto lawyer Willem Poolman, after hearing a radio documentary on The Grateful Dead, produced by Cullingham for CBC Radio, brought forth about 50 hours of 16mm footage from the 1970 Festival Express.

Poolman had planned to make a film on the train-load of musicians who crossed central Canada in the summer of 1970, but it never came together. Included in the lineup were The Grateful Dead, The Band, Ian and Sylvia, Traffic, Mountain and Buddy Guy. The footage contains rare scenes of the rail-riding rockers jamming together and performing. Cullingham, Douglas and Poolman, who will come on board as an executive producer, are gathering releases from the performers as we speak.

Also in the works is a follow-up to Tamarack’s Counter Currents: The Fight For Fish on the Fraser River, which just won a Bronze Apple Award at the 1994 National Educational Film and Video Festival in Oakland, California. Currents director Ann Bromley and Tamarak have formed Saddle Rock Films to produce the film.

A documentary on a Cree community in Northern Quebec is in the early stages of development.

And Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, a tv movie written by Drew Hayden Taylor, is in development with Jim Burt at the cbc. Cullingham hopes to produce the project this summer with Gary Farmer directing.

Meanwhile, Toronto-based Artatak Films (Road to Castagno: A Renaissance Dream) has two documentary projects on the go.

Annigoni: Portrait of an Artist was shot in Florence, Italy over three years and will be completed this summer. The story of Italian painter Pietro Annigoni is a coproduction with Rainbow, an Italian production company.

The company’s newest film, Music From the Mountain, begins production July 1. The documentary follows Canadian guitarist Alvise Migotto to the prestigious Estate Musicale classical music festival in Tuscany. Migotto is the first Canadian to be invited to the event.

Happenings around town

some bits and pieces from around town: Northern Exposure creator Joshua Brand will get a taste of the true north when he comes to Toronto to shoot A Pyromaniac’s Love Story, a feature by Torelli Films for Hollywood Pictures. The film is slated to begin production May 1, with Mark Gordon and Barbara Kelly producing.

– tvontario has hit a milestone in its foreign distribution. With the sale of the Planet Under Pressure series to Mexico, the educational network now has programs licensed in 100 countries around the world. Recent sales include the children’s series Bookmice to Asia Television in Hong Kong and The Learning Channel in the u.s., which also bought Join In! The Acme School of Stuff was picked up by Wharf Cable, a pay cable service in Hong Kong.

– Principal photography on the two-hour Street Legal finale will continue to the end of the month. All original cast members have returned to their original roles and Tom Jackson and Brent Carver are the guest stars. The special was written by Maureen McKeon (Street Legal) and David Barlow (Seeing Things) and is being executive produced by Bonita Siegel, producer of the first Street Legal episode. Stacey Curtis is directing and Duncan Lamb is producing. There’s no word yet on an airdate.

– Sharon, Lois and Bram continued their conspiracy to plant the tune of Skinamarinky-do into minds worldwide with a special singing appearance at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and Hunt. The trio, now increasing its sphere of influence through a partnership with Broadway Video, is also working on a ‘major new venture in interactive media.’ Details are promised soon.

– This province could get a piece of the action on The Scarlet Letter, Roland Joffe’s $30 million feature film starring Demi Moore that begins shooting July 15 in Shelburne, n.s. Scouts have been spotted in the backwoods of Ontario foraging for a location to shoot a forest scene.