What's filming in Toronto this spring and summer

Toronto's production slate couldn't be more packed this spring and summer. Some of the most anticipated projects include Heroes Reborn, a revival of Tim Kring's cult NBC show; Suicide Squad, a DC Comics adaptation that is so secret it's operating under the moniker Bravo 14; and Damien, the small screen continuation of The Omen, which follows The Antichrist into his early adulthood.

Here's a rundown of productions filming in Toronto this spring and summer.

Heroes Reborn

Shooting: April 6 to September 18

Starring: Jack Coleman, Masi Oka

Plot: A 13-episode miniseries reviving the cult NBC series that ran from 2006-2010. Jack Coleman and Masi Oka reprise their roles as Noah Bennet and Hiro Nakamura, as a new group of ordinary people discover they have extraordinary abilities.

Reign Season 2

Shooting: Now until April 15

Starring: Adelaide Kane

Plot: This historical teen drama, focusing on the early years of Mary, Queen of Scots, is filming the last few episodes of its second season airing now on The CW.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

Shooting: May 11 to June 6

Starring: Nia Vardolos, John Corbett

Plot: Ryerson alum Nia Vardalos returns with a sequel to the movie that put her on Hollywood's radar back in 2002. This time, Toula and Ian are dealing with parenthood, as another Portokalos family wedding promises to be bigger than the last. Unfortunately, a family secret promises to put a major damper on the festivities.

Cheerleader Death Squad (Pilot)

Shooting: Now until April 8

Key People: Marc Cherry, Mark Waters

Plot: The creator of Desperate Housewives (Cherry) and the director of Mean Girls (Waters) are shooting a pilot for The CW about three cheerleaders recruited by a disgraced former CIA agent turned teacher who starts using them as his spies in an effort to earn his way back into the agency.

The Girlfriend Experience

Shooting: Now until June 5

Starring: Riley Keough

Plot: A 13-episode anthology series inspired by the 2009 Steven Soderbergh movie of the same name that starred porn star-turned-actress Sasha Grey as a high-end call girl who specializes in posing as her clients' girlfriend. This time Elvis Presley's grandchild, Riley Keough, replaces Grey as a new call girl in the lead role.

Suicide Squad (aka Bravo 14)

Shooting: April 15 to Aug 30

Starring: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman

Plot: Various DC Comics super villains, including Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and Enchantress, are recruited to carry out covert ops for the U.S. Government in exchange for commuted sentences. However, failure to comply means the bomb implanted in each one of their heads goes off.

Damien

Shooting: Now until June 23

Starring: Bradley James

Plot: King Arthur in the Merlin BBC series leads this Lifetime drama that follows the creepy kid from The Omen as an adult when he must realize and confront his destiny as The Antichrist.

Dark Matter

Shooting: Now until May 15

Starring: Melissa O'Neil

Plot: Based on the Dark Horse comic book of the same name and starring Canadian Idol season 3 winner Melissa O'Neil, this Syfy series follows six people who wake up in a spacecraft without their memories before landing on a mining colony. They meet the locals who tell them of a group of mercenaries being sent to kill the colonists and soon they discover that they are those mercenaries.

Minority Report (Pilot)

Shooting: Now until April 30

Starring: Meagan Good, Wilmer Valderrama

Plot: Set ten years after the Tom Cruise film on which it is based, this TV series follows a male "precog" who can psychically predict murders before they happen and teams with a female detective to find a purpose for his gift.

Schitt's Creek Season 2

Shooting: April 13 to June 30

Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara

Plot: Renewed for a second season before it even aired on CBC, we assume season two chronicles the continued misadventures of the riches-to-rags Rose family as they begin to get used to life in the backwater town patriarch Johnny Rose (Levy) once bought as a joke.

11/22/63

Shooting: May 25 to "To be Confirmed"

Starring: James Franco

Plot: A miniseries based on Stephen King's novel of the same name produced by J.J. Abrams. Franco plays Jake Epping, an english teacher who goes back in time to stop the assassination of J.F.K., only to find that his success leads to a nuclear apocalypse in present day. He goes back again to stop himself, but radiation poisoning means it's a race against time.

Defiance Season 3

Shooting: Now until June 11

Starring: Grant Bowler, Julie Benz

Plot: In 2046, the typography of the earth has been radically transformed. Plant and animal species have died and various alien races known as Votans co-exist with humans. The series follows Joshua Nolan (Bowler) and his adopted daughter Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas) as they plant roots in Defiance - a city-state built over the ruins of St. Louis.

Warrior (Pilot)

Shooting: Now until April 30

Starring: Natalie Martinez, Will Yun Lee

Plot: This martial arts series promises a touch of magical realism when a damaged heroine named Kai Forrester works under the physical and spiritual guidance of a martial arts master to take down an international crime lord.

Hemlock Grove Season 3

Shooting: Now until April 30

Starring: Famke Jansen

Plot: This supernatural thriller is shooting its third and final season for Netflix. It follows roma boy Peter Rumancek and blue blood heir Roman Godfrey as they struggle to keep their true beastly nature a secret from the Townsfolk of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania.

Rogue Season 3

Shooting: Now until September 11

Starring: Thandie Newton, Cole Hauser

Plot: Production moves from Vancouver (standing in for San Fransisco) to Toronto (standing in for Chicago) for the third season of this action-thriller because Ethan Kelly (Hauser) is hot on the trail of Grace's (Newton) abductors.

Special Correspondents

Shooting: May 19 to June 29

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Eric Bana

Plot: Ricky Gervais pulls triple duty as the writer, director and star of this remake of a 2009 French comedy. The film also stars Eric Bana as a struggling radio journalist whose arrogance and decadent lifestyle has hindered his career, so he fakes war reports from the front lines in one last desperate attempt to get his career back on track.

Suits Season 5

Shooting: April 6 to November 6

Starring: Patrick J. Adams, Gabriel Macht

Plot: This staple of Toronto's production landscape is back, as fans finally get to see the fallout from Mike's proposal to Rachel last season, what happens in Donna's new job as Louis' secretary after her split from Harvey and where Forstman ends up following the Eric Woodall case.

Two Lovers and a Bear

Shooting: Now until April 30

Starring: Tatiana Maslany, Dane Dehaan

Plot: Tatiana Maslany is spending her off-time from Orphan Back shooting this indie drama about two burning souls that come together to make a leap of faith towards life and inner peace in a small town near the North Pole where all roads lead to nowhere.

The Strain Season 2

Shooting: Now until April 30

Starring: Corey Stoll

Plot: Based on the novel trilogy by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo Del Toro, the series chronicles a CDC team investigating and fighting a strange disease that may remind you of a zombie outbreak, but is actually an ancient form of vampireism.

Did I miss any? Let us know in the comments.

Writing by Aaron Broverman.

Still from My Big Fat Greek Wedding

by Guest Contributor via blogTO

Toronto app is like a personal shopper on your phone

Need ideas on how to wear that amazing jacket you just picked up? Maybe you're trying to figure out how to work the minimalism trend, or figure out a hot date outfit, and need some inspiration on what to grab from your closet - or the mall. Blynk, an app developed in Toronto, aims to make it simple for fashion lovers to nail the style they want.

In the iOS and Android app, outfit photos appear along with an algorithm-generated bank of shoppable items that can help you replicate the look; users can swipe left or right, Tinder-style, to save the ones they like. "We see on average 125 swipes per session on average, with some people swiping over 30,000 outfits," says founder Jaclyn Ling. (All told, Blynk receives over 5 million swipes a month.)

Eventually, the app begins tailoring the looks it shows you to your preferences, using an algorithm that measures everything from the looks you're swiping, any linked-up social profiles, other users with similar likes, and features and brands in the products you like. Ling says the app's focus is more about letting users find and collect inspiration than encouraging them to shop.

"It's a great resource for people to wake up in the morning, take a quick skim through your looks in your Blynk profile, and then think about how to recreate it with the clothes in your own closet. (Also), we send recommendations that people may not have thought of trying, but still suits their style. So users of Blynk love to use it before they go shopping to see what they should buy next."

Since their launch last summer, the app has evolved to allow users to build up "style profiles", creating and saving categorized albums full of looks to create a personal inspiration resource.

"For example, in my own personal profile, you'll see I have albums for 'office,' leather,' 'all black outfits,' 'looks I have' and 'looks I want next' -- totally suited to my fashion style and my lifestyle." If you're looking for something specific, you can search with combinations of keywords - say, "summer + office" or "casual + minimalistic" - to find exactly what you're looking for.

What's next? Expect Blynk to get even more personalized. "We aim to be able to serve recommendations for any style type, for any budget, an geographical location, any occasion and even any brand," she says. "One day, you'll be able to ask Blynk for a recommendation for 'a minimalistic outfit, for a young professional in Toronto, for a date night'."

Want to learn more about Blynk and other Toronto Tech companies? Join Blynk on April 2nd at the TechToronto Meetup where you enjoy free food, drink, hear five tech companies present about the challenges they overcome and meet other people interested in startups. Find out more here.

Photo via Blynk.

by Natalia Manzocco via blogTO

Toronto ranked the 47th worst traffic in the world

According to a new global ranking, Toronto is the 47th most congested city in the world. Is that better or worse than you'd imagine when you're stuck on the Gardiner Expressway? For what it's worth, that ranking puts us 8th in North America and 2nd in Canada, trailing cities like Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, New York and Seattle.

The report comes from GPS manufacturer TomTom, which ranks 218 cities in its fifth annual Traffic Index. It will come as little consolation to those who suffer through a highway commute every day in Toronto, but there are cities that have it far worse than us when it comes to congestion.

A North American city doesn't make the list until the 10th spot (Los Angeles). The worst cities for congested are clustered in Europe and South America, with Istanbul, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro taking the worst three spots at the top of the list. Istanbul was given a ranking of 58 per cent congestion while Toronto comes in at 31 per cent.

For more on the criteria and ranking, check the main index here.

Photo by Floydian in the Wikimedia Commons

by Derek Flack via blogTO

Now you can eat bone marrow pizza in Toronto

One of Toronto's oldest restaurants has been given a major makeover from top to bottom. Gone, too, is the uninspiring menu of the past, replaced instead with an inventive nose-to-tail program from Feasting Room chef Noah Goldberg. The menu will change with the seasons - but a few standbys, like grilled cheddar sandwiches with worcestershire pearls and bone marrow pizza, will be staying put.

Read my profile of Peter Pan Bistro in the restaurant section.

by Liora Ipsum via blogTO

Honest Ed's is having another huge sign sale

Honest Ed's is planning a repeat of its wildly successful sign sale next month. On Saturday April 11, starting at 8:00 a.m., the store will be selling off more of its famous hand-painted signs.

If last year's event is any guide, there will be massive demand for the cards, which advertise sales on everything from silk underwear to table salt. Thousands of people lined up around the block in March 2014 for a chance to snag one of several thousand signs.

Prices ranged from $1-100 and shoppers were limited to a maximum of three purchases. All proceeds went to Victim Services Toronto.

Every one of the discount store's famous signs is created by a pair of in-house painters, Wayne Reuben and Doug Kerr. Between them they produce 70 to 80 signs every day, all of them in the store's own font, called "Slash."

Honest Ed's is due to close in December 2016 to make way for a housing and retail development.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: Andrew Williamson/blogTO.

by Chris Bateman via blogTO

Detroit style pizzeria to open in Toronto

Toronto may have an (over) abundance of Neapolitan pizza places, a rising faction of Roman-style pizzerias, and a few New York-influenced pizza joints, but the Detroit pie is something that to my knowledge we haven't seen much of around these parts (we're still struggling in the Chicago department as well).

That's set to change this spring when Descendant Pizza opens in the former location of the Dinesafe-plagued Amaya Express in Leslieville. What exactly is Detroit-style pizza? The defining characteristic is its square shape, which comes from the semi-deep dish baking pan in which it;s cooked. The idea is to give the crust an almost fried flavour by generously oiling the pan prior to baking.

Detroit-style pizza also tends to feature marinara sauce applied on top of the pie after its removal from the oven. Given this city's obsession with pizza, you can expect that a lot of people with be curious to try the new restaurant, which is currently undergoing the final phase of renovations. Look for a May opening date.

by Derek Flack via blogTO

Get excited for these upcoming food festivals!

Get excited for these upcoming food festivals!





Spring Food & Drink Festivals in Toronto

www.toronto.com

Celebrate cocktails, beer and international cuisine at the top food and drink festivals in Toronto this spring.

by torontodotcom via torontodotcom's Facebook Wall