The province is investing $4.4 million into six film projects in North Bay.
Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing announced the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund money on Friday.
He says it’s leveraging $25 million in spending by these film companies.
“It’s big volume money,” he says. “The restaurants are busy. The car rental [companies] are busy, the actors and extras. We have hundreds of extras from North Bay. Families who line up to become extras on these films. It’s a really important economic development tool.”
Mayor Peter Chirico says despite strikes in the entertainment industry this has been a busy year for filming in North Bay.
“17 films were here [with]184 shooting days,” he says. “The amount of money that flowed through North Bay, because as we know with NOHFC it’s about a northern spend. The producers and filmmakers are spending money hiring local staff.”
Chirico says the city will continue to work with the film industry, which is alive and well in North Bay.
The breakdown of funding is as follows:
· $2,000,000 for Great Productions (Ontario) Inc. to produce the film, “Everything’s Going to be Great” in partnership with Amaze Film + Television Inc. and Everything Great Holdings, LLC., that follows the story of a struggling small-town, family-run theater and stars Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy-winner Allison Janney and Oscar-nominee and Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston
· $500,000 for Hideaway Pictures Inc. to produce the film “Christmas By Chance,” a family holiday film that follows a newly single woman who accepts an invitation meant for someone else
· $500,000 for Hideaway Pictures Inc. to produce “Harvest Homecoming,” a romantic story that follows a substitute teacher who moves back to the family farm
· $500,000 for KM Windmill Love Productions Inc. to produce “Christmas on Windmill Way,” a holiday story about a woman’s attempts to save a historic windmill from a hotel development
· $500,000 for HP Styled Christmas Productions to produce “Royally Styled for Christmas”, which follows the story of an assistant manager of an upscale boutique who is roped into being the personal stylist of a visiting duke
· $415,000 for Other Animal Entertainment Inc. to produce the feature film “Nobel & The Kid,” a story of a man with troubled past who must take over custody of his friend’s child after a tragic accident.
