Cautious optimism is the mood of the moment, as studios and film commissions plan for 2003. It is still too early to say for sure, but those in the know across Canada report early signs that feature film production, in a slump since summer 2001, is set to bounce back.

‘Things are certainly picking up from the last quarter of last year,’ says Peter Leitch, president and GM of Vancouver’s Lions Gate Studios. ‘Now that the labor agreement has been signed it’s had a very positive effect on the marketplace. It’s getting a lot busier.’ The Union of B.C. Performers last month renewed its contract with the CFTPA and AMPTP.

‘The spring is looking strong but that doesn’t mean there can’t be another drought in the summer. We just won’t know until about mid-March,’ Leitch cautions. Lions Gate is currently hosting the Battlestar Galactica miniseries for the U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel, and Warner Bros.’ Scooby Doo 2 goes to camera at its Eagle Creek facility in early February. Leitch says the Vancouver market, previously TV-driven, is making a big shift into feature films. U.S. network shows are staying in L.A., for sake of convenience, whereas more movies are heading north of the border to shoot on the cheap.

Other Hollywood films are expected to pitch their tents in B.C. Vin Diesel and Universal will roll cameras on Pitch Black: The Chronicles of Riddick – a sequel to 2000’s Pitch Black – in March, followed in April by Ben Affleck and director John Woo, who are expected to shoot the sci-fi thriller Paycheck for Paramount. Alex Proyas will then direct Will Smith in a third sci-fi called I, Robot.

Movies are also filling in the blanks at Toronto Film Studios where, for reasons still unclear, says president Ken Ferguson, the usual round of MOWs did not arrive in late 2002. TFS is hosting the now-wrapping Robert De Niro feature Godsend and The Gospel of John, the so-called ‘visual Bible’ project backed by theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky. Ferguson hopes to see more movies sign up before spring.

‘I’d feel a little better if I was talking to more productions right now,’ he says, ‘because I know they generally call several weeks or sometimes months before they move in. But, having said that, sometimes someone walks in the door and needs to be working by next week. That’s very common for us.’

His cross-town competitor, Great Lakes Studios co-CEO Paul Bronfman, agrees. ‘It’s really tough to tell. We usually have a week to 60 days out and that’s about it. It drives the banks crazy.’ Bronfman’s Comweb Group of companies includes the Cine Cite studio in Montreal and equipment provider William F. White International. Great Lakes, although still under heavy construction, is already courting film and TV shoots.

Business is already up slightly in Montreal. ‘The end of 2002 was more active,’ says Louise Lapointe, logistics coordinator at the Montreal Film and TV Commission. ‘We’ve received a lot of demands for locations and for studios from American producers. I think 2003 will be better than 2002.’

Montreal has four or five features lined up to shoot this spring, she says, although it is still too early to name names.

No one seems to be worried about the anti-runaway campaign in the U.S. ‘We’ve been dealing with that for years. You read an article one day and production is up in L.A. The next they complain about runaways,’ says Toronto Film Commissioner Rhonda Silverstone.

‘I don’t think [the campaign] is hitting the producers and studios,’ adds Ferguson. ‘They still look for the better value and the dollar speaks volumes. If you want to make an inexpensive picture then you’re going to come to Canada.’

But the list of cheap international locations is getting longer, and all agree that competition is getting more fierce between Canada’s production centres and cut-rate cities such as Melbourne, Australia and Prague in the Czech Republic.

‘[Those locations] are really, really aggressive,’ says Michel Frappier, CEO of the Ontario Media Development Corporation. ‘And when you look at what they have to offer it puts a lot of pressure on the guys doing the budgets.’

Working with other industry groups, Frappier plans to more fiercely market the decision-makers in Los Angeles and New York and predicts increased production in Ontario within the year. He will also seek greater joint efforts with the private sector.

‘We’ve got to stay on top of these people, and not take for granted that they will come here just because we’re nice people and our dollar is cheap.’ They’re just as nice in Australia, he warns, and far cheaper in eastern Europe.