When Lyriq Bent got a part in Saw II, he was disappointed. The Toronto thesp had auditioned for the role of Xavier, a drug dealer, but ended up with a smaller part as Rigg, the strong, silent SWAT commander.

Rigg ‘wasn’t a choice,’ says Bent, on the phone from New York. ‘It was ‘take it or leave it’ and I had to check my ego at the door.’

Good thing he did. Xavier was killed in that movie and, so, hasn’t been seen much since. Rigg, on the other hand, has become a recurring character, and is back on screen, and back in his SWAT gear, for the fourth installment of the Toronto-shot horror franchise, which opens wide Friday via Maple Pictures. This time, Rigg is abducted and, like the people in the previous movies, must overcome a series of interconnected traps set by the killer known as Jigsaw, or face deadly consequences. It is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II and III), who is back in Toronto shooting Repo! The Genetic Opera.

The Jamaican-born actor, whose resume includes the service shoots Four Brothers, the dance drama Take the Lead and the horror Skinwalkers, believes his career will soon take him to Hollywood, though he loves working in Toronto. He will also be seen with Colm Feore, Elisha Cuthbert and Shawn Doyle in the CBC mini Guns, from David ‘Sudz’ Sutherland.

‘I plan on being successful, and part of that success means working in Hollywood,’ he says, adding that Toronto is too focused on being a service community, and that roles with international appeal are hard to find.

‘We need to invest our interest in making great films and telling international stories [of our own]…we’re too busy servicing,’ Bent notes. He is currently promoting Saw IV and reading scripts. He says he has to make a decision ‘real quick’ in case there’s a strike, even though he doubts the Writers Guild of America will walk out.

‘I don’t think [the strike] is going to happen. The smart thing to do is to wait until May when SAG [Screen Actors Guild] actually re-negotiates, and then you have a stronger leverage to get what you want,’ Bent says.

Saw IV will face competition from other U.S. titles including the Steve Carell comedy Dan in Real Life, from Touchstone Pictures, and, to a lesser extent, the drama Rails & Ties, from first-time director Alison Eastwood, distributed here by Warner Bros.

Meanwhile, Peace Arch Entertainment is releasing Hamilton, ON director Karl DiPelino’s raunchy comedy Pigs on three screens in cities including Calgary, Vancouver and Burlington. The film follows a college skirt chaser (Jefferson Brown) who accepts a bet from his dorm friends to sleep with the entire alphabet, beginning with the letter A of a girl’s last name through to Z, before graduation.

Kenneth Branagh’s dramedy Sleuth, which had its Canadian premiere at TIFF last month, opens in limited release in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal via Mongrel Media, while the francophone drama Le Ring, from Montreal director Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, bows on seven Quebec screens Friday through Christal Films.