Skydance Media Comes to Surrey
Company arrives from Hollywood to film a Netflix series
The ex-printing press building for the Pacific Newspaper Group will soon become home to Skydance Media, a well-known production company from Hollywood. Skydance has produced blockbuster hits from franchises like Terminator, Mission Impossible, and Star Trek, and in an unexpected turn of events, they are opening a studio in Surrey.
Up to 400 staff will serve the studio over the span of several years. During that time, they will be working on a novel-inspired Netflix series, Altered Carbon. Laeta Kalogridis, who has written for Avatar, Shutter Island and Terminator Genisys, is the scriptwriter behind the series, and The Killing actor Joel Kinnamen will play one of its lead roles. No premiere date for the show has currently been released, but 10 episodes have been ordered by Netflix.
Skydance’s partnership with Netflix is set to last eight years, but what else they will create as a result of their collaboration is undetermined.
Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner has acknowledged the arrival of Skydance as an opportunity to boost the city’s economy and artistic richness. In her annual State of the City Address, she made a nod to the connection between Surrey’s tagline and the futuristic themes of the show.
“What better place to tell a story about a city of the future than right here in Surrey, a real city of the future,” she said.
Surrey has been home to a small but vibrant film community for years, and it’s even had a few moments of fame. Already, some big productions have been shot in the city, such as Smallville, Fantastic Four, Juno, Deck the Halls, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, but the opening of Skydance Media’s studio is predicted to mark an age of greater productivity and notoriety for the city. In 2015, Surrey hosted 193 days of filming, up 67 per cent from the year before. The Surrey Film Festival is also held in town, which awards exceptional filmmakers for their work every year.
Winner of Surrey Film Festival’s Best Student Production Award, Wahid Ibn Reza, says that he shot 40 per cent of the film that won him his award in Surrey and found it to be a suitable backdrop. The production, What Am I Doing Here? is “about an international student coming to America, chasing a dream and not realizing what the sacrifices that he’s making are.”
Ibn Reza praises the city as a film set for its convenience, diversity, and size.
“It was convenient because, when you are making a student film, it’s very difficult to get a location without any budget,” he says. “The landscapes are nice, and the streets are really quiet, and the different neighbourhoods in Surrey are unique. The neighbourhoods are also rather big in Surrey, so you can actually shoot a lot of stuff.”
He says “there are definitely huge possibilities and room to grow” there as well.
Over the past few years, Surrey has been a location for both small and large-scale television series and movies, feature films, Bollywood films, and commercials. Some of the most popular locations for filming in the city are Crescent Beach, Holland Park, Simon Fraser University, Surrey Lakes, and the Central City Building, all of which Skydance could potentially use as filming sites.
