A new owner promises to rejuvenate a long-dormant Nova Scotia studio facility on the province’s picturesque South Shore and lure more production to the region.

The Shelburne Film Studio, a former naval base, has been an operational soundstage for some time — hosting productions such as the 2002 indie Virginia’s Run and Wilby Wonderful, starring Sandra Oh and Ellen Page, the following year. But nothing has shot there in the past five years.

‘It’s the best-designed studio in Nova Scotia, if a little remote,’ says Virginia’s Run production manager Elizabeth Guildford.

It’s also been up for sale by the South West Shore Development Authority for the better part of 10 years. The property, valued by some between $18 million and $22 million, is in the process of being bought for under $3 million by Australian producer Steve Gilmour and his Atlantic Film Studios shingle. He met with lawyers last week to sign the papers that will give him ownership.

‘When they asked for $2,750,000 freehold, walk in-walk out, with all the equipment and everything else, we immediately put in an offer,’ says Gilmour. This was back in September, and it took a few months of talks for the final terms to be ratified. ‘We’re at the stage where the contract has been signed by the chairman [of the SWSDA],’ he says.

The 152-acre property has two soundstages — one 8,000 square feet and one 12,000 square feet, with 40-foot ceilings. It comes with a 59-room hotel — two-thirds of which Gilmour plans to convert to office space — a fully equipped catering kitchen, and a swimming pool. Gilmour feels that to maximize the potential of the space, it needs a third studio on site.

‘There’s a 100-acre backlot right next door,’ he says. ‘We want to build a 20,000-square-foot soundstage with a 50-foot-high ceiling.’

Gilmour is also planning to coproduce a film to be shot in Shelburne starting in the spring, which would inject an estimated $22 million into the local economy. Moon Harvest, which Gilmour says will be helmed by a ‘well-regarded Canadian director,’ is a script from his producing partner Clare Bourke-Jones, who executive produced a feature called Shadows in the Sun with Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek) and Harvey Keitel.

Gilmour says he was attracted to Nova Scotia by the tax credit — 60% for shooting outside of Halifax plus an extra 5% for doing three movies in two years — as well as by the studio. He estimates that the facility is a little bit more than two hours out of Halifax by road and less than one hour by helicopter.

Guildford has visited Shelburne recently and has been talking to Gilmour about shooting pictures there. ‘I’ve got a few scripts that would work [for the studio] — stuff that comes because of our ocean vistas,’ she says. She will be working on the Katie Holmes feature The Other Side in Halifax in the coming months.

Of Gilmour, Nova Scotia’s newest studio mogul, she says, ‘He’s a businessman. His vein is putting people together.’