A complex comparable to Universal City in Hollywood will reportedly begin construction in Halifax in January 2001. Sound unbelievable? DF Entertainment owner Terry Carpenter doesn’t think so. Carpenter expects the Atlantic Motion Picture Center will put Halifax on par with not only Toronto and Vancouver, but many other major production centres.

Carpenter’s lavish ideas for such a small province have met with incredulity and criticism from others – including at least one government official – but he is not fazed, predicting the ampc will open its gates in 2002.

Carpenter says df has acquired 1,800 acres of land, at an estimated value of $2 million, which will provide the base for the core of the ampc. On this lot, Carpenter says he and his ‘silent partners’ will erect a world-class production facility, able to handle any production of any size from preproduction to post. Carpenter says df is currently negotiating with landowners for purposes of further expansion in coming years, with the overall goal of having 5,000 acres on which to build.

His ‘living back lot’ concept combines residential, commercial, industrial and recreational components. It will, in short, be a small city with a focus on entertainment production.

Carpenter says living accommodations within the ampc will span 640 acres and that df is hoping eventually to phase in 15,000 housing units. There will also be special accommodations provided for visiting producers, directors, crew and talent coming in to work on a project long-term.

Carpenter says several areas of the complex will be constructed to resemble various ‘hotspots’ including a little Italy and a Chinatown, with natural areas being developed throughout the complex to separate the areas and to provide a natural setting when required on a shoot.

There will also be a reported 19 soundstages constructed in the first phase of the ampc, with more than 640,000 square feet between them. More will follow in coming years.

A special-effects shop will be established on-site, with the help of International Special Effects in Vancouver. The shop will control all facets of effects on the site, including a digital animation facility.

Many communications companies are reportedly interested in adding what they can to the development.

Carpenter is also hoping to establish an on-site film school.

He does not foresee raising the millions of dollars needed to help build the complex being a real problem. He says a number of companies are interested in developing on-site branches of their businesses, from restaurants to hotels. In order to generate additional money, there are talks of selling off 48% of the parent company. Further, some of the projects being built will be ‘turnkey developments’ where df will help construct various on-site ventures and then turn them over to investment groups. ‘It becomes a self-financing development with the way it is structured,’ says Carpenter.

Carpenter predicts the budgets of productions made at the ampc will be anywhere between $1 million and $200 million. He maintains there is no reason why large-scale productions cannot regularly come to Canada to shoot.

The question that has been dogging Carpenter most recently, and will undoubtedly continue to do so until the ampc is completely operational, is, quite simply, why Halifax?

‘To me it makes logical sense,’ says Carpenter, adding that favorable land rates contributed to his decision to open shop in Nova Scotia. ‘It is a market that is growing in an area that is growing and we can get in at the right time to help it go to the next level. I feel that Nova Scotia deserves something that can create jobs on both the recreational and industrial sides.’