Ivan Reitman on Monday recalled the moment he learnt that Natasha Richardson suffered a tragic ski accident in Quebec while her husband was shooting Atom Egoyan’s Chloe in Toronto, a film he produced.

‘I had the sudden realization that life can change in an instant. The people that we love, or ourselves, are here one moment and then are not. I thought it for myself, just a self-reflective moment. And certainly [there was] sadness, which I felt for Liam and the tragedy he was going through,’ Reitman told the TIFF press conference for Chloe, which is screening at the festival ahead of a Canadian theatrical release in December.

Egoyan, on hand for the presser, said Richardson’s death delayed filming by one week only, before Neeson returned to the Toronto set.

‘I think because of that theatrical background and that sense of professionalism he was able to come back and just finish the job,’ Egoyan said, paying tribute to Neeson, who did not attend TIFF to help promote Chloe.

Egoyan also recounted the debate that went into shooting the remake of Chloe in Toronto rather than, as the script called for, in San Francisco.

Complicating that choice was starting the Toronto shoot in February.

‘At first I was going, ‘Am I crazy? I’m shooting a film in Toronto in February and I’m trying to make it look sexy,” the director said.

But he added the cold exteriors offered a perfect counterpoint to the warm interiors.

Egoyan said he felt strangely liberated by shooting his first film based on a script he did not personally write.

‘With my scripts, people don’t often know what they’re all about, even me,’ he said.

‘It was a really different process’ to make Chloe with someone else’s script, ‘liberating, inasmuch as you know the storyline should work.’