Now there’s a second Toronto megastudio in the pipeline, and it could prove a win-win situation for a production center that has seen a dearth of major guest shoots in recent years.

Toronto real estate developer Castlepoint Development confirms it’s behind a studio complex project in the city’s west end with investment and an apparent seal of approval from Britain’s Pinewood Studios Group, part owned by British film directors Ridley and Tony Scott.

Alfredo Romano, a Castlepoint principal, says he and Pinewood have formed a 50-50 venture – Castlepoint Studio Partners – which will open a $35-million, 100,000-square-foot, five-soundstage studio at Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue in fall 2008.

It’s no done deal, as the project is still on the drawing board, and Castlepoint and Pinewood are doing their due diligence, says Romano.

But he adds that Castlepoint has indeed bought 2.3 hectares of land, and intends to go forward with Pinewood on the project.

A spokesman for Mayor David Miller confirmed land for the film studio has been bought ‘with intent,’ but as yet no application for a building permit has been made, nor have site plans been sent to city hall.

Romano says his land has been zoned for studio development, so securing permits and other permissions from the city should be no problem. The only other major hurdle is ratification from the Pinewood board, which he considers a formality.

The studio, if it goes ahead, will compete for big-budget foreign film shoots with the FilmPort studio complex, now being built on the waterfront by Toronto Film Studios.

‘Game on. I think it’s a fabulous thing for Toronto, because we have always said that FilmPort cannot be the silver bullet that can save the Toronto film industry,’ says Ken Ferguson, TFS president.

Other Toronto studio operators agree there’s room for two megastudios in the city once FilmPort opens in March 2008 and the Castlepoint-Pinewood complex follows later that fall, as planned.

Jim Mirkopoulos, VP of facility management for Cinespace Film Studios, argues that more high-end studios in Toronto mean more choice for footloose Hollywood and foreign producers. Cinespace recently closed its Marine Terminal 28 location, but has other facilities and is continuing to develop a property on Eastern Avenue formerly leased by TFS.

The five new soundstages promised by Castlepoint-Pinewood, added to the seven new stages planned as part of the first phase of FilmPort, should go some ways in getting Toronto back into the big-budget Hollywood game alongside Vancouver and Montreal.

‘I hope it’s true,’ says Paul Bronfman, chairman and CEO of the Comweb Group, a major equipment and services supplier. ‘When you think about Toronto, really there’s a couple of purpose-built studios, but not on a scale to attract large American feature film.’

Romano anticipates two large stages in the 28,000- to 32,000-square-foot range among the five in his proposed studio.

Besides the 100,000 square feet of new studio space, Castlepoint also intends to locate offices and workshops in another 150,000 square feet of existing building space on the midtown Toronto site, which will need to be refurbished to reduce building costs for the joint venture.

News of the Pinewood-Castlepoint studio was also welcomed by Jeff Steiner, CEO of the Toronto Economic Development Corporation, the municipal agency that has drawn flak from other studio owners for leasing city-owned land to FilmPort and then granting a non-compete clause in the Port Lands area.

Steiner says the possibility of Pinewood setting up in Toronto’s west end provides proof that studio development could take place anywhere in Toronto, and not just on the waterfront.

‘The model for having different centers of film activity across the city is Los Angeles, which has five clusters,’ says Steiner.

Romano says Pinewood would be an equity partner in the proposed Toronto studio. He would not comment, however, on media reports that the Scott brothers would possibly shift their own movie shoots from their U.K. operation to Toronto, or steer other foreign producers to Ontario. Last summer, the Scotts executive produced the Sony miniseries The Company, which shot at Cinespace.

But Romano does insist Pinewood is looking to the Toronto studio as a ‘foothold into the North American market.’

A London-based spokesman for Pinewood declined to comment.

www.pinewoodgroup.com