Finding Nemo in Sudbury not far-fetched.

Dan Hawes wants to produce a sequel to the popular animated film, Finding Nemo, in Sudbury.

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A decade ago, he says, it would have been a dream for this to occur in Sudbury. Now, the idea isn't so far-fetched. Hawes is in discussions with Pixar, the California-based producer of the show, and the subject of a sequel has come up a couple of times.

There is a buzz of optimism in the local film and television industry and Hawes is one of the main drivers.

"We need to build on success. We have to produce another 10 'Chilly Beaches' and not just by my company," says the enthusiastic producer of March Entertainment, an animation studio based in Toronto and Sudbury.

Hawes is part of a new generation of young northern entrepreneurs who are convinced that Northern Ontario can offer something unique to production companies located mostly in Northern California and Toronto. Hawes is best known for producing the hit animated series Chilly Beach, which airs on CBC. Since he started producing in Sudbury, Hawes has been in contact with several producers in California, including Disney, Fox Kids and MTV.

Success for Sudbury, however, is not limited to cartoons. The local feature-length and short-film industry is also taking off. The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines announced in late August a $1 million grant to help produce a made-for-TV movie about Canadian country singer Shania Twain. The movie will be shot in Timmins and Sudbury.

Hawes says this would not have been possible without the development of a local entertainment industry infrastructure. Championing the industry in Sudbury is Music and Film in Motion (MFM), which acts as a contact point for producers seeking to shoot movies in the area.

Mark Palumbo is president of the three-year-old initiative. A musician by trade, Palumbo says MFM was founded because of a need to nurture local talent and serve as a contact point for the large Toronto production market.

"There was definitely a need for a group to act as a film commission. We needed to attract film companies to Sudbury," he says.

Since its launch, MFM has also facilitated an ongoing dialogue between Sudbury and the Ontario Media Development Corporation. MFM is instrumental, he says, in helping location scouts consider Sudbury.

"We try to make it as easy as possible to film here. We give them information on accommodations, available crews, as well as extras," he says.

The corporation also administers a generous tax credit program. Ontario, Palumbo says, is in competition with other provinces in attracting film production. Northern Ontario is aided by a 20-per-cent tax credit on a production company's labour costs. Since 1997, northerners were also blessed with a "regional bonus" of a further 10-per-cent tax writeoff. Film producers that shoot outside the Greater Toronto Area receive the bonus. The province itself, he says, competes directly with Manitoba, which offers a 45-per-cent tax write-off for film production.

Palumbo convinced Barna-Alper Productions, the company filming the Shania Twain film, to shoot in Sudbury. The producers, he says, originally had their minds set on New Brunswick.

Palumbo was also able to attract the producers of Men with Brooms, a popular feature-length film. The use of Inco's slag heap as a background was what sold Sudbury as a location. Palumbo says he is also working with other producers on a documentary film.

Lori Paradis is one of the founders of the Northeastern Ontario Filmmakers' Association (NOFA), a non-profit networking group for local film talent. She says that the geographic diversity of the area makes it a good choice.

"It's about the landscape. Where else can you find a location that has mines, old heavy industrial sites and an urban, residential site?" she says.

Sudbury, and all of Northern Ontario, must use geography as a selling point for film producers from Toronto, she says. Paradis says northerners can use the model developed by Nova Scotia over the past few years. Its unique location was presented as a competitive advantage and the provincial government believed in them, she says. They made it incredibly easy to shoot in the region.

For seven years, Paradis was president of a company in Sudbury that produced animation for the hit show Gargoyles and did some work for the British Broadcasting Corporation--all out of Sudbury. Paradis is convinced that Sudbury still needs to nurture talent here. She looks to the example of David Cronenberg, the famous Toronto-born producer and director (he produced the 1986 re-adaptation of The Fly, starring Jeff Goldbloom), who refused to move to the United States to become successful. He stayed in Toronto and helped to establish the city as Canada's film centre.

Giving filmmakers a break is high on the list of priorities for City of Greater Sudbury. The city recently unveiled a film production policy and intends to work with film producers through Music and Film in Motion.

www.marchentertainment.com

www.musicandfilminmotion.com

www.omdc.on.ca

BY JOSEPH QUESNEL

Northern Ontario Business