Watchmen Shares 'Smallville' & Other's Space

Officials in the Vancouver suburb that is a hub for runaway production insist that the strength of the Canadian dollar is not scaring away any of their greenback business. After Montreal for 300, it's Burnaby for Watchmen. According to a recent report by the British Columbia Film Commission, film and TV production in the province during the first quarter of 2007 was down about 20%, with 34 projects in production compared to 42 for the same period last year. But don’t tell that to folks in Burnaby, B.C., a suburb of Vancouver that owns 56% of the Lower Mainland region’s soundstage space. “We’re not seeing any shift at all; if anything, it’s business as usual,” the city’s filming coordinator Susan Rae tells the Burnaby News Leader. “I don’t know if it would make any difference if it [the Canadian dollar] goes to [U.S.] par. We’re so set up now with really good crews and studio space.” Productions currently camped out in Burnaby include the TV series Smallville and the 2009 feature Watchmen, Zack Snyder’s follow-up to 300. The latter is currently in pre-production there, with plans to roll from September through February, 2008. [More]