Hollywood-based Skydance Media will open a film studio in Surrey, B.C.
Surrey mayor Linda Hepner made the announcement Thursday during her 2016 State of the City address.
The prodco behind the upcoming Star Trek Beyond and 2015’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is converting the former Pacific Newspaper printing press building in Newton into a facility with five sound stages, said Hepner. She added that the new facility should accommodate 400 production staff.
Hepner also announced that Skydance will use the studio to begin production on a new Netflix series, Altered Carbon. The futuristic series is based on a 2002 novel of the same name by Richard Morgan.
“Really, what better place to tell a story about a city of the future than right here in Surrey, a real city of the future?” Hepner said during her address.
The mayor also noted that Surrey has issued nearly 70% more filming permits in the first five months of the year than it had at this time last year. Between January and April of 2015, the city issued 31 film permits that led to 69 days of shooting. During the same period in 2016, the city issued 52 film permits, resulting in 73 days of shooting.
The announcement of a new film studio in B.C comes just a few weeks after the provincial government announced it would cut its basic production services tax credit by 5% and its digital animation or visual effect tax credit by 1.5%. The move was a reaction to B.C.’s ballooning tax credit program, which saw the provincial government paying out almost $491 million in fiscal 2015-16.
Image: Shutterstock