Toronto Magazine - Premier 2008 - (Page 22) Cityscape filming the city on location Obscure late-night films and digital cable have kept Toronto in the collective movie-watching consciousness for decades. The original Hollywood North, Toronto is a dynamic location for the world’s best directors. Norman Jewison, Gus Van Sant and Ron Howard have all directed films here, the latter two earning Oscar gold. The sheer number of television series as well as independent and blockbuster films on location have transformed the city into sets and scenes from around the world — even transcending space and time. “Was that The Bay they transformed into Madison Square Garden for Cinderella Man?” Yes, it was. And try to act natural if you see Edward Norton running around in tight purple shorts just north on Yonge Street, where The Incredible Hulk (2008) destroyed everything not nailed down between College and Dundas for three nights this past September. The neighbourhood was standing in for Harlem. Church Street to the east was Pittsburgh in the smash Showcase series Queer as Folk. The University of Toronto became Harvard in Good Will Hunting, and Casa Loma will forever be remembered as Professor X’s School for the Gifted in X-Men. In starring roles of their own, the Danforth and the Historic Distillery District each had turns playing Chicago — the Distillery in the Oscar-winning film of the same name, the Danforth in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And when an Oscarnominated film shot in this city by a Toronto-born director is screened in a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival, as was the case for David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence in 2005, the script about Toronto becoming one of the most influential cities in — and on — film seems nearly complete. www.toronto.ca/tfto Curtain call (above) Yonge St. as Harlem in the 2008 production of The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton; (left & below) the story of James J. Braddock — prizefighter turned common-man hero — transforms Queen and Broadview into 1930s New York City for The Cinderella Man. 22 toronto | 2008 Photos: (top) Sam Javanrouh; (centre & bottom) Ontario Media Development Corporation http://www.toronto.ca/tfto
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