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‘ You Don’t Have to Go<br />
Anywhere Else’<br />
Shape of Water producer<br />
J. Miles Dale on why<br />
del Toro shoots in Canada<br />
Chicago and Spotlight. What’s<br />
different with <strong>The</strong> Shape of Water?<br />
With Chicago, there were no<br />
Canadian designers on that. And<br />
even Spotlight, it wasn’t a heavy<br />
design movie. On <strong>The</strong> Shape of<br />
Water, other than the cinematographer<br />
and a couple of special<br />
effects and makeup artists, every<br />
single person from the production<br />
and costume designers, the<br />
sound team, the editor — they’re<br />
all Canadian. It tells the world:<br />
“We can play with anybody now.<br />
Our top people are right up<br />
there. You don’t have to go anywhere<br />
else.”<br />
Does that mean you and del Toro<br />
will make all your future movies<br />
in Toronto?<br />
<strong>The</strong> script will always tell you<br />
what it needs to be. If you need to<br />
do something on a mountain,<br />
you can’t do that here. If you’re<br />
stranded in the Pacific, you<br />
can’t do that here. But for anything<br />
that’s set in an East Coast<br />
Left: Dale (left) on the set of Shape of Water<br />
with del Toro. Above: the film’s stars, Richard<br />
Jenkins and Sally Hawkins.<br />
American city or some generic<br />
countryside like the Midwest, you<br />
can definitely do it here.<br />
Why has Toronto become del Toro’s<br />
filmmaking base?<br />
Ever since he did Pacific Rim,<br />
Guillermo has been here. He lives<br />
here and his family lives here.<br />
He’s really embraced the community,<br />
and he really feels<br />
he’s found a filmmaking home<br />
in Toronto. I think he likes the<br />
Canadian sensibility.<br />
Any word on your next project<br />
with him?<br />
I think he’d like to take a short<br />
break from directing. We have<br />
a couple of feature projects that<br />
we’re producing together. He’s<br />
also writing something for himself<br />
to direct, maybe next year.<br />
He’s going to stay prolific. He can’t<br />
really slow down.<br />
How do you feel as the Oscars<br />
approach?<br />
We’ve had a nice run so far. If it<br />
ended today, that would be fine.<br />
We’re going to the BAFTA Awards<br />
in London, where we led the nominations.<br />
And two weeks after that,<br />
there’s the Oscars. So these last<br />
couple of laps should be very interesting.<br />
We’re definitely feeling a<br />
lot of love right now, so hopefully<br />
that continues. — E.V.<br />
CANADIAN<br />
DIRECTORS TO<br />
WATCH<br />
WAYNE<br />
WAPEEMUKWA<br />
Wapeemukwa,<br />
27, won the<br />
best Canadian<br />
first feature<br />
prize at the 2017 Toronto<br />
film fest with his debut,<br />
Luk’Luk’I. “Walking away<br />
from TIFF with the best<br />
first feature prize confirmed<br />
for my cast, crew<br />
and me that we were<br />
on the right track,” he says.<br />
SADAF<br />
FOROUGHI<br />
Born in Iran,<br />
Foroughi,<br />
41, studied in<br />
France and<br />
settled in Montreal before<br />
writing and directing Ava,<br />
a coming-of-age drama<br />
that won the FIPRESCI<br />
critics prize at Toronto<br />
in 2017.<br />
SHELAGH<br />
MCLEOD<br />
After<br />
establishing a<br />
career as an<br />
actress on U.K.<br />
TV, McLeod, 57, recently<br />
wrapped production on<br />
her debut feature,<br />
the Richard Dreyfuss- and<br />
Colm Feore-starring<br />
thriller Astronaut, shot just<br />
north of Toronto.<br />
JACKIE<br />
ENGLISH<br />
After a string<br />
of acting<br />
credits,<br />
including CBS’<br />
Beauty and the Beast,<br />
English broke into the<br />
feature world with<br />
Becoming Burlesque, a<br />
Toronto-set drama about<br />
a young Muslim woman<br />
who embraces the world<br />
of burlesque dancing.<br />
subsidies and incentives available north of<br />
the border to make the film happen.<br />
<strong>The</strong> heist flick was shot mostly in<br />
Hamilton, Ontario, allowing the producers<br />
to nab the province’s 10 percent tax credit.<br />
That’s in addition to a separate incentive<br />
that refunds 21.5 percent of qualified<br />
Ontario production expenditures.<br />
As a co-production with Sweden, the<br />
film tapped subsidies in both countries<br />
thanks to the casting of Swedish actors,<br />
including Noomi Rapace. Tabarrok won’t<br />
say how much financing came from<br />
← Hawke was the only castmember to shoot scenes in the real city of Stockholm.<br />
79<br />
Sweden, but Ontario Media Development<br />
Corp. chipped in $440,000. Telefilm<br />
Canada also invested at the script stage.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Hamilton locations were so effective<br />
that Hawke was the only actor to<br />
travel to the real Stockholm to capture<br />
exterior shots.<br />
“Stockholm would not have been possible<br />
without the support of Telefilm,<br />
provincial and federal tax credits and the<br />
OMDC,” Tabarrok says. “It’s nearly impossible<br />
to finance a film this size without the<br />
support of government incentives.” — E.V.<br />
JASON AND CARLOS<br />
SANCHEZ<br />
Allure, the debut feature<br />
written and directed by<br />
Jason, 36, and Carlos, 41,<br />
Montreal-based still<br />
photographers turned<br />
filmmakers, stars Evan<br />
Rachel Wood as a house<br />
cleaner with a dark past.<br />
Samuel Goldwyn Films<br />
plans a mid-March U.S.<br />
release. — E.V.
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