COMING ATTRACTIONS

Film and TV production business in Canada is declining, according to a report by Reuters. Production in Toronto (once dubbed “Hollywood North”) and Vancouver has been especially hard hit, primarily due to recent rises in the value of the Canadian dollar. The news service reported Monday that 85% of the productions with which the Directors Guild of Canada was involved in 1987 were in some part U.S. financed, but less than 60% of Canadian production starts this year will have money ties to the U.S. The reasons? Rising costs, a stiff production taxation rate in Ontario and the downward slide of the U.S. dollar, which in 1985 was worth $1.45 Canadian but now only garners $1.21.