Film and TV production in Quebec so far this year looks to be on par with 2005, buoyed by three Hollywood pictures coming to the province.

"So far what we see is a level of production that is similar to what we had last year," confirms Claire Samson, president and CEO of Quebec producers association the APFTQ.

Total film and TV production spending in Quebec was pegged at $1.31 billion for the year ending March 31, 2005 in a Nordicity Group-prepared report released earlier this year on behalf of the APFTQ and the CFTPA. During that period, the volume of homegrown feature film production in Quebec was $136 million, or 54% of the country's total, while foreign location production was at $261 million, or 18% of the national total.

Samson says figures for 2005/06 will not be tabulated by Nordicity until year's end.

Figures from Céline Daignault, the interim head of local technicians union AQTIS, show Quebec film and TV production at $80.2 million so far this year, and foreign film production at about $80 million, although that doesn't include Paramount Pictures' $110-million The Spiderwick Chronicles. Based on the popular children's fantasy books, it is scheduled to start principal photography in Montreal with an IATSE crew on Sept. 12.

Currently filming in Montreal is Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, the $25-million sort-of film bio of Bob Dylan, produced by Christine Vachon through Killer Films and John Goldwyn, Jeff Rosen and James Stern for Endgame Entertainment. New Line Cinema's $55-million Journey 3D, an update of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth starring Canuck Brendan Fraser, who is also executive producing, is partway through its 12-week Montreal shoot.

Production also remains steady in Quebec City, the province's second largest production region, according to Quebec City film commissioner Lorraine Boily. Last year, the city hosted nearly $50-million worth of production, a figure she anticipates may increase slightly by the end of 2006.

She says three or four projects, including some European copros she can't yet name, are headed to the provincial capital. In the meantime, the domestic feature La belle empoisonneuse, produced by Les Productions Thalie, directed by Richard Jutras, and starring Isabelle Blais and Maxime Denommée, is currently rolling.

Like the rest of the country, Quebec has been hurt by a rising loonie (US$0.89 as of Aug. 14) and the adoption of competitive film and TV tax credits by rival jurisdictions in the U.S. and beyond, but it has also been plagued by a spat between AQTIS and U.S.-based IATSE, which recently opened a local - number 514 - in Montreal. AQTIS maintains that, under provincial law, it has the exclusive right to represent film and TV technicians.

Although the conflict remains unresolved, most in the industry agree the battle has settled down from earlier this year, when New Regency's $75-million film Jumper left the province for Toronto amid the uncertainty. Mediations between the two unions, overseen by Senator Francis Fox, broke off, and the matter was scheduled to be heard before the Quebec Labour Board on Aug. 14 and 16. In the meantime, AQTIS has stepped back to allow IATSE to crew Spiderwick Chronicles, while its members work on Journey 3D and I'm Not There.