To pedestrians and drivers in the GTA, it may be an unwanted case of déjà vu. Film trucks and crews have once again taken over streets in their neighborhoods and in the downtown core, just as it was a few years ago. But it is certainly a good sign for the local production industry: Hollywood is back making movies in Toronto.

‘We’re pleasantly surprised with the volumes,’ says Patrick Whitley, head of Dufferin Gate Productions and Temple Street Productions and co-chair of the Film Ontario industry consortium.

In June, a dozen feature films were either shooting or prepping, including local producer Don Carmody’s Silent Hill, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (working title), the biopic of rap artist 50 Cent, and 16 Blocks, the Richard Donner actioner starring Bruce Willis, who is also on tap for the summer shoot of Solace.

Other Hollywood pictures shooting in town this season include the horror sequel Saw II, The Sentinel, starring Michael Douglas, the thriller Silence, the Antonio Banderas drama Take the Lead, and Zoom, with Tim Allen, Chevy Chase and Courtney Cox.

Best of all, the Hollywood actors and honey wagons might just be here for a while.

‘If the Canadian dollar remains where it is [US$0.80 at press time], and financial incentives remain in place, the levels of service production we’re seeing here should continue,’ Whitley says.

Ontario took a beating in recent years, owing to the economic aftermath of 9/11, SARS, a rising loonie, and competition from rival locales such as Prague, Czech Republic, and Sydney, Australia, which offer their own tax credits and financial incentives.

According to the CFTPA, foreign service production volumes in Ontario fell by 38% in the one-year period from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004 compared to the previous cycle, just as B.C. volumes went up by half.

To deal with the recent downturn, in the last year some soundstages and service providers pegged their services at a $0.78 Canadian dollar for U.S. customers.

The production sector reached the end of its rope last December, when hundreds of local crew members, studio operators and other suppliers marched on the provincial legislature to demand rescue measures. And the government was moved to action, hiking its tax credit for foreign producers to 18% from 11% and to 30% from 20% for local producers. The increases seem to have reversed the fortunes – and economic competitiveness – of Hollywood North.

‘We’re seeing around $200 million in new activity that we can attribute directly to the tax-credit increase,’ says Donna Zuchlinski, manager of film at the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Cinespace Film Studios co-owner Steve Mirkopoulos also applauds the Ontario government for helping fill his various soundstages with, among other movies, The Sentinel, Truth, Justice and the American Way starring Ben Affleck, and the Steve Martin laugher Cheaper by the Dozen 2.

But even with the banner spring and summer, Mirkopoulos recognizes the challenges continually at play.

‘It’s a volatile environment. We’ve seen the ups and downs. So we concentrate on providing absolutely excellent service to our clients, and this pays off with a lot of repeat business,’ he insists.

The focus is likewise on customer service at Showline Harbourside Studios, which has hosted such Hollywood productions as the Disney comedy The Pacifier, starring Vin Diesel. Showline co-owner Richard Lukas says that snagging Hollywood movies remains an elusive game, as the bean counters there continue to weigh the benefits of shooting in Canada or elsewhere in the world.

‘Things happen quickly. When you think you may have three major features in the bag, the plug is pulled, or a project is delayed,’ Lukas remarks.

Showline, while having hosted the first X-Men feature, watched as the two expensive sequels went to Vancouver for wont of bigger purpose-built soundstages – a continuing negative for Ontario, despite much talk and little action about proposed Toronto mega-studios.

On the TV front, Whitley says Toronto has a way to go before it returns to 1990s levels of activity. The reasons for the continuing downturn are several: U.S. producers prefer shooting TV series where they are set; A-list talent tend to not want to shoot in Canada for six to eight months out of the year; and drama production is down in general, although showing signs of new life. And then there is the new rivalry with American states that have begun offering Canadian-style tax credits, such as Louisiana and New York.

As a measure of the downturn, Dufferin Gate serviced approximately 125 Showtime MOWs and series beginning in the mid-1990s, but currently the U.S. cabler has the lesbian-themed drama series The L Word shooting in Vancouver and only a couple of MOWs coming to Canada each year, says Whitley.

Meanwhile, the current movie boom has also lifted the boats of related sectors, notably local post-production houses. But much of the high-end work currently in Toronto shops is actually coming from out-of-province, especially from Vancouver, which continues to trump Toronto in terms of hosting big-budget, FX-driven shoots, according to Rick Hannigan, head of digital film service house Cine-Byte Imaging.

For example, Cine-Byte sees some business from B.C.’s Brightlight Pictures, and is performing digital intermediate services for the prodco’s Bloodrayne and Slither. It has done likewise for Universal Picture’s Land of the Dead, which recently shot in Ontario.

Zuchlinski stresses that the resurgence of Hollywood expenditures in Ontario is enabling all facility houses to reinvest in their businesses, helping to maintain the province’s production infrastructure.

‘The foreign business is what gives those facilities the capital to stay up to date,’ she says.