SUDBURY -- A Sudbury man, Peter Mihaichuk returned to his hometown to open a film production studio called BRB Studio which is short for Black Rectangle Brand Studio.

Mihaichuk has been working in film in Toronto for more than a decade and just recently started talking about moving back to Sudbury with his family when he saw a building for sale.

“I jokingly said 'we should start a studio out of it.' and that sort of thing and we both laughed and didn’t think anything else of it and then a couple months later it was still on the market when we were looking and so we started seriously taking about it. One thing lead to another and we put an offer in,” said Mihaichuk.

The 10,000 square foot building will be used for both film production and photography.

“We have small studio spaces they can use, as well as quite a few office spaces, these productions often need office spaces to house a lot of the employees and the other use would be for photography,” said Mihaichuk.

He says as a way to incorporate local history of the former Club Allegri Community Italian hall, he posted old photographs on the wall in the studio that were given to him by the Coniston Historical Group.

“They gave us lots to do with the building itself,” said Mihaichuk. “We have everything from 1950 onwards as well as other Coniston landmarks and things like their hockey team and their soccer team from the 30’s.”

A local artist will also be featured at the studio every few months.

Local film industry groups say no films have been shot in the north since March because of the pandemic, but say they’re pleased to see another studio open up locally because things are picking up again.

“What we’re seeing right now is we have what we refer to it as, as "scouting" happening in various regions in Northern Ontario such as Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Timmins and North Bay,” said Rob Riselli, of Cultural Industries Ontario North.

Mihaichuk says he is looking forward to hosting the first film production which is booked for mid September. He says the crew will be shooting a physiological horror movie.