Summer’s nearly here, meaning the local multiplex will be bursting with blockbuster tales of futuristic worlds and caped crusaders. And for the past several years, many of the biggest of these fantasy films have been produced in Vancouver. The same can be said of the small screen, with nets such as Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. shooting its most popular shows in B.C. All these producers are taking advantage of the city’s inherent advantages and the infrastructure that has blossomed since the mid-1990s.

Big-budget sci-fi flicks that have shot in Lotus Land include The Chronicles of Riddick, I, Robot, The Core and Mission to Mars, as well as comic book adaptations X2, Elektra and Catwoman. Fantastic Four, Marvel’s original superhero group, provided B.C. with its biggest production last year and opens July 8 through Fox.

The trend continues this summer, with the third X-Men film setting up shop at Vancouver Film Studios and the $60-million Canada/Germany copro Dungeon Siege, based on a videogame, set to roll on July 8.

Hollywood keeps sending big projects to Vancouver, but it is a matter movie execs there would rather not discuss, since ‘runaway production’ has become a political hot potato, especially as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to eliminate it. It was only five years ago that Arnie shot his sci-fi opus The Sixth Day in B.C., and Terminator 3 was also supposed to film there until he pulled it because of his political ambitions.

In the TV world, Vancouver has been the production base for long-running series The X-Files, Smallville and Stargate SG-1. X-Files may be gone, but the latter two are still there, as is SG-1 spin-off Stargate: Atlantis, plus The 4400 and Dead Zone. Currently shooting its sophomore season is the updating of the 1970s Battlestar Galactica series, which joins the Stargate programs as Sci Fi Channel’s biggest draws and which are notable successes for CHUM in Canada.

Started with X-Files

And just how has Vancouver seemingly cornered this lucrative production market?

‘It all started with X-Files,’ says Ron French, production manager for Galactica, and an X-Files alum. ‘Next was Millennium and other projects proposed by [X-Files creator] Chris Carter that came through Fox. These projects helped develop some really good SFX expertise locally, which attracted more shows. Eventually, it got to the point that L.A. got used to sending sci-fi projects to Vancouver, and they are still doing it today.’

Indeed, the presence of post/FX shops such as Rainmaker, Technicolor, Northwest Imaging & FX, Lost Boys Studios and Image Engine has been a major plus.

The popularity of The X-Files led to the overall growth of sci-fi production, and Vancouver was well positioned to benefit. ‘X-Files really laid the groundwork for a more general acceptance of genre films and TV shows,’ says Robert Cooper, co-executive producer of both Stargates.

Sci-fi producers are complimentary about Vancouver crews, which have grown substantially in quantity and quality since the X-Files days. Bottom-line concerns are top of mind today, just as they were then.

‘Because X-Files was done in Vancouver on time and on budget, it convinced a lot of other sci-fi producers to shoot here,’ says Pete Mitchell, president of Vancouver Film Studios.

The presence of large soundstages has given B.C. the edge over Toronto for sci-fi and superhero projects that require large-scale FX sequences.

Mammoth Studios in nearby Burnaby, for example, has four large soundstages, the biggest measuring nearly 125,000 square feet, with 40 feet of unobstructed headroom. Production teams have inhabited it for both X2 and Riddick. Also in Burnaby, River Studios offers a 58,000-square-foot space with a lofty 45-foot ceiling, which allowed it to accommodate Fantastic Four, The Core and Mission to Mars.

‘Producers of sci-fi movies need really big studio spaces with high ceilings, and we have them,’ says Avtar Thandi, owner of River Studios. ‘We also have the crews and equipment to work in these stages.’

Vancouver Film Studios and North Vancouver’s Lions Gate Studios provide producers with further soundstage options.

Of course, the exchange rate has been the main driver of all this production, especially when it rested around 56%.

‘We got spoiled by the 62-cent Canadian dollar,’ sighs Brad Wright, the other executive producer of the Stargates, which were initially made for MGM, which has subsequently been taken over by Sony.

But the B.C. government offset the decline of the U.S. dollar by raising its labor tax credit for service producers to 18% from 11% earlier this year, a move Wright says directly ‘kept B.C. crews working on U.S. projects.’

And don’t underestimate the importance of weather.

Despite all the rain, ‘Vancouver has the most temperate climate in all of Canada,’ says Cooper. ‘You can shoot outdoors almost all year round. You could do that in other parts of Canada, but it’s sure easier on the crew to do it in Vancouver.’

Besides, even on cloudy days, ‘Vancouver provides some really striking, gloomy exteriors,’ notes Mitchell.

B.C. provides a wealth of various locations, which makes a big difference when you’re recreating alien worlds.

‘For a first-season episode of Battlestar Galactica, we had to come up with a Mars-like planet location,’ says French. ‘Well, we found what we needed nearby in [mountainous] Coquitlam.’

Vancouver offers a modern-looking downtown alongside the 19th century charm of the Gastown neighborhood. The city offers both the ocean and mountains nearby. Some, including Cooper, feel that, by comparison, Toronto is more limited location-wise, not least of all because ‘the CN Tower seems to show up in every shoot.’

While it takes crews less time to get to rural and beachfront settings in Vancouver than in Toronto or L.A., urban sprawl is beginning to pose a problem.

‘The site that SG-1 fans know as [Planet] Abados is now one square mile in size and rapidly shrinking due to new homes,’ says Wright. ‘Soon it will be gone. In the same way, the location that serves as SG-1’s ‘tree planet’ is being overrun by development so rapidly that it’s hard to get a good shot.’

Another important advantage of Vancouver to L.A. execs is that both cities are in the same time zone.

‘That’s a biggie,’ says Cooper. ‘L.A. is where a lot of the [supervision] comes from. Besides, Vancouver is only a few hours away by plane.’