Toronto Film Studios will see some business in the near future, but not show business. The once-thriving, now-neglected soundstage at 629 Eastern Avenue in the city’s port area has reportedly been earmarked as a temporary jail.
CTV News said Friday that TFS will be used to hold and process protestors during the upcoming G20 Summit in June if, as some expect, there are mass arrests. The site and its 16 soundstages are just a few kilometers from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where leaders from the world’s top 20 economic powers will meet June 26 and 27.
‘We are doing a lot of work to make sure we mitigate and minimize the disruption,’ police chief Bill Blair told the network.
The studio was closed after Filmport, now called Pinewood Toronto Studios, opened in 2008. Local unions and guilds including IATSE have since lobbied to have the site reopened. Walmart was, at one point, expected to move in and turn the site into a store, though that zoning application was turned down.