Spooksville TV series to scare up big economic benefits for Cowichan
Spooksville TV series producers aim to drop some scarey money into Cowichan's economic coffers this year.
Geoff Millar, Cowichan's regional economic-development boss, says Vancouver-based Front Street Productions is slated to shoot various episodes of the kids' series — based on author Christopher Pike's best-selling horror-fiction books — in the Warm Land during the next six to eight months.
"They're setting up production offices in the old Sprott-Shaw building," he said Tuesday of the York Street structure.
"We expect $14 million to $15 million in direct economic benefits for the our area through hotel rentals, food, wages and apartment rentals," said Millar, noting local talent and skills are also targeted in Spooksville spending.
Those figures are good news since local spinoffs form movies, commercials and TV series shot here are often hard to measure.
But it's not hard gauging why Spooksville series brass picked Cowichan.
"They liked the City of Duncan, and our rural settings," explained Millar, adding metro cities' movie-making losses are the valley's gain after recent provincial changes to the film industry.
"Production companies are moving out of metro areas and into regional areas, which helps us."
Millar also applauded efforts by Film Cowichan's Louise McMurray in attracting the series here.
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