A recent decision to pull filming of the Fantastic Four reboot from B.C. and move it to Louisiana and to bypass the province for the next Superman and X-Men movies has some critics casting the B.C. Liberals as villains in the loss of feature movie projects.
"This government has succeeded in doing what no other super villain has, and that's to scare away the Fantastic Four," said George Heyman, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview and Opposition critic for the film industry, in the B.C. legislature.
Heyman criticized the government for not matching tax breaks offered to moviemakers in other jurisdictions, causing B.C. to lose out.
Peter Leitch, president of North Shore Studios and Burnaby's Mammoth Studios and chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association, said this week there were also other reasons the Fantastic Four pulled out - including a shooting schedule that called for sunny skies and green leaves in the middle of Vancouver's winter months.
But Leitch said the loss of such a major project is still concerning for the local film industry.
A major feature movie like the Fantastic Four probably represents about 500 jobs and a project in the range of $80 million to $100 million, he said. "It's substantial," he said. "Obviously it's something we'd rather have here."
Indications are also the next Superman movie will likely be heading back east - either to a city in the eastern U.S. or eastern Canada.
Leitch said the film industry isn't sure if the recent loss of major projects signals a trend. "That's always a concern," he said. "That's one of the things we watch out for."
Recently North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Jane Thornthwaite pointed out the importance of the film industry to the North Shore in statements in the legislature, saying that when local studios are busy, it has a spin-off effect on other local businesses.
Overall, the film business has picked up in B.C. since its nose-dive in late 2012 and early 2013, said Leitch.
"We do have quite a bit of production going on right now," particularly TV shows, he said.
But the B.C. industry, estimated at a value of about $1.2 billion annually, has been struggling to hold on to some projects, given the more favourable tax credits offered in other parts of Canada and the U.S. B.C. has advantages like good year-round weather and experienced crews, said Leitch.
But while B.C. offers tax credits of 33 cent on labour costs of productions shot in the province, other jurisdictions offer tax credits on the entire costs of movie projects.
The B.C. government has said it can't afford to offer bigger breaks. Current tax credits for the film industry add up to $380 million a year, said Finance Minister Mike de Jong in the legislature last week, adding "Holy corporate subsidy, Batman!"
But the bottom line can be a significant factor on larger movies, said Leitch.
Heyman said the lack of competitive tax breaks have meant it's "clobbering' time" for the B.C. film industry.
Ruth Huddleston, a sound mixer from the North Shore, said the lack of big movie projects has a trickle-down effect on workers. Those who would normally work on large movie projects move to TV series, she said, and there's less work to go around for the industry's approximately 24,000 workers. About 5,000 of those people live on the North Shore.
"I'm really concerned," she said. "The tax credits need to be competitive with other jurisdictions."
Currently the industry insiders aren't sure what - if anything - is going to replace the Fantastic Four. Tomorrowland, a science fiction movie with George Clooney, will shoot in Vancouver later this summer.
"We're waiting for the next big thing," said Leitch. "It's not like we've got nothing. We just want more."
