Michael B. Jordan, Jaden Smith, Emma Roberts and 30 other stars filming in Toronto this summer

Michael B. Jordan, Jaden Smith, Emma Roberts and 30 other stars filming in Toronto this summer

It’s a beautiful summer day in Toronto, you’re walking down Yonge Street and, bam, suddenly you’re stuck between a squadron of New York City taxis or LAPD cruisers. It’s not an American invasion—just the set of the latest Hollywood blockbuster taking over our cleaner, cheaper streets. Here are some of the movies and TV shows shooting around the city this summer.

Little Italy

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Emma Roberts, Alyssa Milano, Danny Aiello, Andrea Martin, Jane Seymour
Director: Donald Petrie
Release Date: 2018
In this straight-up rom-com, a young couple (Christensen and Roberts) fall in love while their families run warring pizza restaurants. Director Donald Petrie gave us such bubblegum entertainment as Miss Congeniality and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, so expect this to become a lightweight Netflix perennial. Filming is taking place in the eponymous Toronto neighbourhood, and paparazzi have caught Christensen’s character sporting a Toronto Blue Jays jacket.

 

Jason Isaacs as Captain Gabriel Lorca. Photograph by Jan Thijs
Star Trek: Discovery

Starring: Sonequa Martin-Green, Jason Isaacs, Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Michelle Yeoh, Rainn Wilson
Creators: Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman
Release Date: September 2017
For the first time since 2005’s short-lived Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise boldly goes back to television, with super-producer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, American Gods) at the helm. The prequel, which was filmed mostly at Pinewood Toronto Studios, is set a decade before the first Star Trek series and returns to the franchise’s philosophical roots.

 

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Life in a Year

Starring: Jaden Smith, Cara Delevingne, Nia Long, Chris D’Elia, Cuba Gooding Jr., RZA
Director: Mitja Okorn
Release Date: 2018
You may have heard that celebrity scion Jaden Smith feuded with Toronto’s Four Seasons hotel for (allegedly) spiking his pancakes with dairy. You may not have heard that he was in Toronto to film this romantic drama, about a 17-year-old who sets out to give his dying girlfriend a life’s worth of happiness in her final months.

 

?: @jackywright

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Fahrenheit 451

Starring: Michael Shannon, Michael B. Jordan, Sofia Boutella, Laura Harrier, Lilly Singh
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Release Date: TBD
Maybe it has something to do with the political climate, but we can’t get enough of dystopian sci-fi these days. Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, 99 Homes) writes and directs HBO’s new adaptation of the Ray Bradbury classic, with Creed’s Michael B. Jordan as the lowly “fireman” who burns outlawed books. Bahrani has modernized the story enough to make room for Toronto-based YouTube star Lilly Singh, who, appropriately, plays a vlogger.

 

Photograph courtesy of Bell Media
The Detail

Starring: Wendy Crewson, Shenae Grimes-Beech, Angela Griffin
Director: Ilana Frank
Release Date: TBD 2017/2018
Veteran Canadian actress Wendy Crewson (Saving Hope) headlines CTV’s new detective drama, which follows three female homicide investigators who juggle high-stakes investigate work with challenging family lives. The 10-episode, hour-long series will debut during CTV’s 2017/2018 schedule.

 

New @allure Issue ?????!

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Fire Me

Starring: Amanda Seyfried
Director: Ryan Case
Release Date: TBD
After directing episodes of Modern Family and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ryan Case makes her feature-length debut with this workplace comedy à la 9 to 5. Based on Libby Malin’s novel, it follows a frustrated office drone who will do anything to get sacked. Amanda Seyfried is rumoured to star in the production.

 

Happy Birthday, Greg! {#gregkinnear} {#happybirthday}

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Strange But True

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Margaret Qualley, Blythe Danner, Connor Jessup
Director: Rowan Athale
Release Date: TBD
Five years after her boyfriend’s death, a young woman tells his family she’s pregnant with his child, leading to a series of discoveries that reveal a terrifying secret. The noir-inflected thriller comes from La La Land producer Fred (“We lost, by the way”) Berger.

 

"try to look smart" #judge #orderinthecourt #tropfestjr

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Every Day

Starring: Angourie Rice
Director: Michael Sucsy
Release Date: TBD
How’s this for a premise: a withdrawn girl falls in love with a disembodied entity that inhabits a different teenager every day. David Levithan’s bestseller is the latest YA novel to get a big-screen adaptation, with Me, Earl and the Dying Girl writer Jesse Andrews tackling the screenplay. Director Michael Sucsy previously handled the Rachel McAdams–Channing Tatum weeper The Vow.