Pinewood Toronto Studios is ready to call certainly one of its soundstages after Paul Bronfman, the Canadian trade pioneer who died in February at age 67.
Bronfman was a longtime chairman of Pinewood Toronto Studios, and earlier than {that a} founding accomplice and a significant shareholder in Filmport Studios, a manufacturing studio advanced that opened in Toronto’s portlands in 2008. A yr later, the ability was rebranded as Pinewood Toronto Studios, with Bronfman within the function of chairman and a key shareholder.
In 2023, Bronfman bought his minority stake to the Pinewood Group, the London-based studio group that runs Pinewood Studios within the U.Okay. and now owns all the Toronto mega-studio.
“Pinewood Toronto Studios wouldn’t exist at present, had it not been for Paul Bronfman’s private {and professional} help all through the years — first as an investor and our founding chairman, and following the sale of the enterprise to Pinewood Group in 2023, as an expensive good friend and advisor to the management staff. He was an important man who earned exceptional affect all through the Canadian movie trade and we’re delighted to commemorate his legacy with a stage named in his honor,” Sarah Farrell, basic supervisor of Pinewood Toronto Studios, advised The Hollywood Reporter in a press release.
The Paul Bronfman Stage, Pinewood Toronto Studios.
Pinewood Group
The Paul Bronfman Stage, previously Stage 7, through the years has hosted manufacturing for Star Trek franchise exhibits like Star Trek: Part 31; 5 seasons of Star Trek: Discovery; the 2015 Adam Sandler sci-fi comedy Pixels; Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi drama Robocop; David Cronenberg’s 2012 fantasy thriller Cosmopolis; and the 2011 thriller Dream Home, which starred Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz.
The stage renaming is very poignant for the Bronfman household, who will probably be a part of an unveiling ceremony on the Toronto waterfront studio Wednesday.
“We’re grateful to Pinewood Toronto Studios and the Pinewood Group for his or her tribute to our father Paul Bronfman by naming stage 7 in his honor. Our dad was extremely obsessed with offering first-class manufacturing service infrastructure to the Canadian and worldwide movie and TV communities. Being a founding accomplice in Pinewood Toronto Studios embodied that mission. It’s tremendously significant to us that Pinewood will proceed his legacy on this means,” Jonathan Bronfman, co-president and CEO of Toronto VFX studio Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ), mentioned in his personal assertion.
In recent times, Pinewood Toronto Studios has performed host to manufacturing for a gentle stream of Hollywood tentpole films and TV sequence, with Netflix and Amazon MGM Studios every having a long-term lease on soundstages as a part of Toronto manufacturing hubs.
However Bronfman is remembered for maintaining the religion with the unique Filmport studio from its authentic financing and development by way of to a tough launch of the then seven-stage studio through the 2008 Wall Road monetary disaster, which put the squeeze on Hollywood manufacturing budgets.
Pinewood Toronto Studios
Courtesy of Pinewood Studios
“For its grand opening in 2008, he (Bronfman) raised its profile by honoring his good good friend David Cronenberg with the privilege of chopping the ribbon. He then used his appreciable affect in Los Angeles to drum up enterprise, although few might keep in mind that the Canadian greenback exceeded the worth of the U.S. greenback on the time, so bookings have been scarce within the early years,” Ken Ferguson, former president of Toronto Movie Studios and Filmport, recounts.
Bronfman remained a key shareholder within the post-Filmport rebranding of Pinewood Toronto Studios in 2009 when Britain’s Pinewood Studios Group got here on board to advertise the Toronto soundstages as a supervisor.
Alfredo Romano, a Toronto actual property developer at Castlepoint Improvement, recalled whereas the studio’s authentic builder, actual property developer Rose Corp., needed to exit Filmport, Bronfman was eager to remain on as a part of the brand new possession consortium for Pinewood Toronto Studios.
“Having developed movie infrastructure throughout Canada, he knew Toronto couldn’t maintain a spot on the Hollywood desk with out nicely run function constructed studios — ours would be the primary. He had no intention of promoting and we rapidly agreed to a partnership,” Romano tells THR.
He provides: “As Pinewood Toronto’s first and long-serving chairman, Paul was a key protagonist in a number of expansions that noticed Pinewood Toronto develop to a 16 stage facility and develop into a finest in school facility. Within the darkest moments when the studio was nonetheless bleeding, we regularly joked about how little worth these most popular shares had. It didn’t matter one bit to him. He was doing what he beloved to do and I used to be thrilled to be alongside for the experience.”
Oscar-winner Don Carmody (Chicago) — who first labored with Bronfman in Montreal whereas each have been with Astral Bellevue Pathe on the peak of Canada’s tax shelter years — recalled, over a 45-year friendship, watching a main provider of manufacturing rental gear, soundstages and companies to main studios, streamers and locals taking pictures in Canada come into his personal as an trade mogul.
“He (Bronfman) courted studio executives, community movers and shakers and anybody who he may cajole into making an attempt Canada for his or her initiatives. He was a champion of the tax credit score packages out there all through the provinces and agitated to maintain them contemporary, aggressive and forward of the opposite nations, states and jurisdictions, who all quickly jumped on our bandwagon,” Carmody recollects.
Randy Lennox, a former CEO of Bell Media, the Canadian media large that additionally bought its controlling stake in Pinewood Toronto Studios to the Pinewood Group to permit total management, and labored with Bronfman from 2017 till his demise earlier this yr, tells THR the longtime studio chairman and investor remained stuffed with pleasure over an authentic 34-acre movie manufacturing campus rising exponentially over the a long time on the power of main American studios and streamers taking pictures their originals on its soundstages.
“Paul by no means veered away from his affable, but direct method in ensuring that everybody from the studio executives to the on-site carpenters have been handled with equity and deferential respect. You may see every single day, this was his child!” Lennox, senior adviser to the Pinewood Group worldwide and Loft Leisure CEO, recollects in tribute to Bronfman.
Different productions to fill soundstages at Pinewood Toronto Studios through the years embrace It: Chapter Two, The Christmas Chronicles, A Easy Favor, Molly’s Sport and The Expanse. The power now stands at round 490,000 sq. toes of manufacturing area and 16 soundstages in all.
In early 2025, partly on the urging of Bronfman, Pinewood Toronto Studios named one other of its soundstages after Norman Jewison, the Within the Warmth of the Evening and Moonstruck director who died a yr earlier at age 97.
