Richard Hughes has been a location manager in Toronto for 15 years. He has seen the rise and he has seen the fall. But last February Hughes saw the light — and now he is working with the Devil.

Rather than chase down work as a location manager, he and his mother-in-law, Emelia Franks, bought a film studio this summer. His first tenant was DreamWorks and now it’s the new M. Night Shyamalan production, Devil.

Hughes’ warehouse in an industrial park outside Toronto looks like most warehouses: early nondescript. But The Backlot, with its 50,000 square feet and 20-foot ceilings, is next door to Dufferin Gate Studios, around the corner from deluxe’s Lakeshore facility and a 30-minute drive from that up-and-coming location Hamilton, a popular destination for lower-budget productions.

It’s something of an irony that since the opening last August of Toronto’s long-and-tearfully anticipated super soundstage, Pinewood Toronto Studios, the market for good old-fashioned warehouse space has increased.

‘It’s geared for high-end moviemaking,’ says Hughes of Pinewood, formerly Filmport. ‘Canadian film and TV producers have trouble affording those rates. The DGC, IATSE, NABET were all concerned.’

Hughes says the feature film clients coming to Toronto can be divided into two camps: big-budget and indies. ‘We’re not seeing the middle, the $40 million films,’ says Hughes and, as a result, the city is ‘losing business for lack of stage space… So we’re back to where we were in the 1980s with an increased demand for these raw industrial warehouses.’

His rates, he says, are 40% to 50% lower than what a producer would expect to pay at Pinewood. Pinewood did not respond to requests for a rental rate sheet.

Ken Ferguson is all too aware of the need. The longtime president of Toronto Film Studios championed the megastudio only to see the facility pass out of his hands. His old home, the much-used and unloved facility at 629 Eastern Avenue, has since been mothballed. The production community is feeling the loss.

‘The fact is,’ says Ferguson, ‘budgets range wildly from one type of production to another. All types of facilities are required.’

Ferguson notes that a number of warehouse-like studios in Toronto have been lost, not just 629 Eastern, but Pier 28, the former home of Cinespace’s Lakeshore Blvd. studio, as well as other less formal shooting galleries in the urban core. He cites development pressures.

Hughes plans to divide The Backlot into three soundstages. The first will be ready by December when the Shyamalan film is set to shoot. Meanwhile, the production is using the carpentry shop and building sets. The multimillion-dollar production is also using Pinewood’s facilities for part of its process.

But as Ferguson points out, ‘If you’re only left with a top-grade studio it leaves the market open. Not everyone wants to or needs to stay at a five-star hotel.’

Not even the Devil.