As Hollywood Pulls Back, Northern Ontario Steps Up
'Frankenstein'
Courtesy of Netflix
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Like the entertainment industry everywhere, Ontario’s film and TV business has absorbed its share of external shocks — the L.A. strikes, the Peak TV hangover, a streaming boom going in reverse. But production beyond greater Toronto has emerged as a welcome buffer, with regional bonus incentives, cheaper labor and a diverse array of iconic locations helping the province weather Hollywood’s pullback.
Cities and towns across northern Ontario, having already pivoted from mining and manufacturing to hosting major film and TV shoots, are rising to the logistical challenges of turbulent times. And while talent, crews and infrastructure remain a draw, tax credits, currency savings and government rebates are the real superpower.
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“Beautiful locations and strong infrastructure get you into the conversation, but incentives are what help close the deal,” says David Anselmo, CEO and president of Sudbury-based Banner Hideaway Pictures.
Provincial incentives can be stacked with the federal rebate to a bonus tax credit rate of 45 percent — a significant lever in an era when every greenlight is being scrutinized. “License fees are tighter, buyers are more selective,” Anselmo adds. “But I actually think that favors places like northern Ontario, because we’re no longer selling a theory. We’re offering a proven production ecosystem.”
That confidence echoes across the province, even as Ontario faces added competitive pressure from a foreign film tax credit hike in British Columbia. “If Kingston can stand in for Maine, we have better incentives that help you with your budget and your bottom line,” says Joanne Loton, Kingston’s film commissioner. The southwestern Ontario city recently hosted shoots for Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy miniseries and Amazon’s scripted Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest, both of which made use of the Kingston Penitentiary — a former maximum security prison turned museum.
The economic case for shooting outside Toronto is reinforced by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund (NOHF), a tier-based grant that draws qualifying producers to the province’s northern reaches and can be layered on top of existing provincial and federal film tax credits. The fund has already contributed $2 million each to the Paramount medical drama SkyMed and the third season of Hallmark’s When Hope Calls to bring production north.
“We want Toronto to be busy. And we’re always going to go through those ebbs and flows,” says Patrick O’Hearn, executive director of Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION), which works to advance production across six major centers: Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Parry Sound. “But we’ve really defined there’s no central hub that needs to be the be-all and end-all of production. We can use the full province and all of this great country to make amazing film and television.” Sudbury has been particularly active. Recent shoots include Jason Biggs’ directorial debut Getaway, gory fantasy action comedy Deathstalker, starring Patton Oswalt and executive produced by Slash of Guns N’ Roses, and body horror feature The Pond from director Jeff Renfroe.
The city’s natural landscape — lakes, wilderness, remote cottage country — has proven as much of a draw as its infrastructure. “People think of us as an industrial city, which we are, but we have beautiful lakes and wilderness here,” says Clayton Drake, Sudbury’s film officer. “Above-the-line talent often find gorgeous Airbnbs or cottages that give them the northern getaway experience while they’re filming.”
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That promise of natural beauty was realized most dramatically by Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which used the icy surface of Lake Nipissing just outside North Bay to double as the Arctic’s frozen expanse, where Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) pursues the Creature (Jacob Elordi) by sled and dogs. “We knew we needed the Arctic, and at a certain time of the year. North Bay was perfect for that,” says producer J. Miles Dale. “Literally by just stepping off the land and going yards to the west, we had this beautiful, unobstructed view of the sunset.”