MONTREAL: Montreal and Quebec location promotion interests have opened a service office on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. The initiative comes from commissioner Andre Lafond of the Montreal Film & TV Commission, with the active participation of STCVQ-ACTRA, represented by Arden Ryshpan, on-location production liaison officer, and SODEC (Quebec Film and Television Office – BAPE), represented by Martine-Andree Racine, special-project delegate.

The office was initially conceived as a follow-up service to U.S. productions, interested in filming in Montreal, that were cancelled or postponed because of the threatened strike action by the U.S. guilds.

Ryshpan says location promoters have to figure out ‘how much money is really left in the pot,’ namely if the major studios plan to start or restart projects this fall after the intense ramping-up of production schedules in the first six months of 2001. Returning TV series, MOWs and indie one-offs are likely to resurface faster than major motion pictures, which have more extensive casting and development issues to sort out, adds Ryshpan.

Lafond estimates the value of U.S. service production budgets in Montreal for the first six months of 2001 at $225 million.

Service production highlights in 2001 include the feature film Abandon (Paramount), starring Katie Holmes; Their Last Chance (V.Z.S. Montreal Productions for Time Life Network), starring Ellen Burstyn and Laura Dern; the big-budget feature The Sum of All Fears (Paramount), starring Ben Affleck, James Cromwell and Morgan Freeman; The Lathe of Heaven (A&E Networks, Alliance Atlantis); Winter’s Heart (Muse for CBS), starring Jane Seymour; Lost Junction (Bigel/Mailer Films); and No Good Deed (Seven Arts/Remstar), filming in Montreal through to September and starring Samuel L. Jackson.

-www.quebec-film.com

-www.stcvq.qc.ca

-www.actramontreal.ca

-www.sodec.gouv.qc.ca