SARS cost the city of Toronto one Jennifer Lopez picture, delayed a cable TV conference and took a bite out of both the Hot Docs and Sprockets film festivals. But now that the worst appears to be over, both the city and its film industry are recovering from the brief plague.

‘I hope we’ve seen the last of it,’ says Toronto Film Studios head Ken Ferguson. ‘It’s the last thing this city needed.’

Area studios and service houses grew jittery last month as the mystery illness, bad press and the World Health Organization travel advisory threatened to kill off the summer filming boom. The timing, most agree, could not have been worse in that Hollywood shoots scheduled for May and June had ample time and, it seemed, reason to cancel and relocate.

Which is exactly what Miramax Pictures did with Shall We Dance? The Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere picture abandoned its plans to shoot in Toronto shortly after the WHO issued its travel warning. Its cast, crew and undisclosed spend have gone to Winnipeg for June 23. The TNT TV movie The Goodbye Girl also left town, although producers did not blame SARS.

Heart of Summer from New Line and Universal’s Heart of a Soldier both stepped back from Hollywood North in late April, although SARS again does not appear to have been a factor. Summer left town for other reasons, say sources, and Solider reportedly shut down because of trouble with the cast and/or script.

At press time, the shoots for Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (Disney), Dawn of the Dead (Strike Entertainment/Universal), Harold and Kumar go to White Castle (Senator Intl./New Line), and the TV movie Lamont’s Maccabees (Disney) were still set for Toronto. None of the domestic or foreign shoots already underway have shut down – although Gene Hackman and Colin Farrell, stars of Welcome to Mooseport and A Home at the End of the World, respectively, were rumored to be avoiding their sets during the height of the SARS scare.

The city’s production slate is on par with that of 2002, according to the Ontario Media Development Corporation. ‘It’s the exact same level as last year, we have 19 shows either shooting or prepping right now,’ says spokesperson Sharon Wilson. The OMDC took out full-page ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter downplaying the WHO warning, insisting the province is ‘safe and open for business.’

Toronto Film commissioner Rhonda Silverstone agrees that the worst is probably over and that the city is recovering.

And yet many fear that fallout from the SARS scare will make this year slower than most. ‘I don’t know that [Toronto] will see as much business as usual. I think there will be a lag,’ says Ferguson. ‘It’s very easy for shoots to go over to other cities.’

‘Some of the long-form that was in preproduction has been pushed, some are just waiting and seeing,’ says Paul Kenyon, president of Absolute Location Support Service. ‘This year, only in the fourth month… we’ve had at least six verifiable productions that were going to come and didn’t. I think that’s very telling.’

Hot Docs and Sprockets were also stung (see story, p. 9). ‘We saw all but a handful of our international broadcasters cancel at the last minute,’ says Chris McDonald, exec director of the documentary festival. Fifteen percent fewer delegates turned up and the fest ‘lost a fair number of panelists,’ but most of the locals and indie producers still showed.

McDonald suspects international sales will drop this year, but hopes that deals between Canadians will fill the gap. ‘It’s very possible the Canadian broadcasters will dig a little deeper in trying to help out the other Canadians. I’m certainly hoping so and it wouldn’t surprise me,’ he says.

Even though seven of the 25 international guests also dropped out of the children’s film fest, says Sprockets director Jane Schoettle, attendance was up by 10%. ‘The people that live here knew there was no danger,’ she says.

SARS fears also forced the cancellation of the Canadian Cable Television Association’s Cable Summit, slated for the last week of April. It has been bumped to September.