Toronto may be ‘Hollywood North’, but Mississauga has fast become Hollywood North By Northwest.
These days it’s not unusual to come across the familiar box trucks and lighting apparatus that denote a film crew at work in the city, but Mississauga’s role in Canada’s film industry was hardly an overnight success.
The city first began to tentatively step into the spotlight in the 1980s, benefiting from the industry’s growth in Toronto.
There were TV commercials, including one that was only shown in Texas, a couple of TV pilots, the long-forgotten CBS TV movie Mad Avenue, and I remember CBC shooting a scene for the popular children’s TV show Sharon, Lois and Bram down near the old train station on Clarkson Road.
By 1988 the City was charging production companies $2,000 a day for use of the Civic Centre, but not everyone was enamoured.
Lights, camera, and action commence at Benares on Clarkson Road N. (Photo credit: Mississauga Film and Television Office)
Residents complained to councillors about unexpected traffic congestion caused by closed roads, and the challenges of trying to get through the front door of city hall because Burt Reynolds was blocking their path.
He was in town to shoot the Switching Channels alongside Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve, a film largely forgotten except for the stories of Reynolds and Turner’s legendary fights.
No one even remembers Mississauga was in the film, largely because City Hall was unrecognizable and the producers failed to list the City in the film’s closing credits, despite agreeing to in the contract.
After Switching Channels left town, the City changed its requirements, and for a time filming wasn’t allowed at City Hall during business hours.
Mississauga is where the action is for film crews. (Photo credit: Mississauga Film and Television Office)
Despite the initial challenges, Mississauga continued to roll out the red carpet for film crews, such as Canadian director David Cronenberg, who filmed part of the now-classic psychological thriller Dead Ringers here.
Considered one of Cronenberg’s best films and one of the best horror films ever made, it starred Jeremy Irons as twin gynecologists who share everything, until it cycles out of control.
Other productions and stars also made their way west.
Steve Guttenberg was here for Police Academy. Diane Keaton and Liam Neeson came to town for The Good Mother, a film directed by Leonard Nimoy, as did director Sidney Lumet, who put Don Johnson and Rebecca De Mornay through their paces in the thriller Guilty as Sin. Pre-Speed Sandra Bullock touched down for the filming of Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman TV movie, staring Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner.
By the early 1990s, Mississauga had become a hub of activity, particularly for television shows. CBS’ Top Cops regularly filmed on location in town, and Mississauga was also used for the E.N.G., Kats & Dog, Counterstrike and My Secret Identity.
Warner Brothers was among the first Hollywood studio to put down stakes in Mississauga, building a 57,000-square foot sound stage on Orwell Street, which is used for David Carradine’s Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, which ran from 1993-1997.
Mississauga City Hall atrium set up for The Handmaid’s Tale. (Photo credit: Mississauga Film and Television Office)
Since then, Mississauga’s film industry has grown to include eight sound stages and a long list of locations.
The Mississauga Civic Centre became a Beijing hotel in 1995’s Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves, and almost 20 years later it was where the handmaids were indoctrinated for HBO’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
In 2019 CBS built a 260,000 square-foot production facility near Dixie and Highway 401.
CBS Stages Canada includes six sound stages, where it shoots a number of shows, including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Discovery.
All this activity makes Mississauga one of the largest film and television clusters in North America.
Scooter’s Roller Palace on Royal Windsor Drive was used in Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla; the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, which set the scene for Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent; and Anne with an ‘E’ and Netflix’s Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities was on location at Benares, the City’s Museum in Clarkson.
Other films and TV shows include Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, RoboCop, RED, A Simple Favor, Station Eleven, Orphan Black, Kick-Ass 2, The Umbrella Academy, The Boys and most recently, M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and the new Kathy Bates reboot of Matlock.
You can hear more stories about the people and events that helped shape Mississauga via our podcast, We Built This City: Tales of Mississauga, available on your favourite podcast platform or from our website.