TORONTO — Supervillains descended on Toronto’s financial district and the city’s most chic shopping strip last weekend — causing chaos and destruction.
It was all for Suicide Squad, the big-budget DC Comics/Warner Bros. film currently in production and starring Will Smith, Jared Leto and Viola Davis.
Saturday night, Bay Street between Queen St. and King St. was transformed into Norton Street in the fictional Midway City.
Banners promoting an Egyptian art exhibition at the Midway City Museum were displayed on street lights and buildings were disguised as Midway City Public Works and City Courts.
The Bay Adelaide Centre was renamed the John F. Ostrander Federal Building — a wink to the man who created the modern version of the Suicide Squad in the 1987 DC Comics book Legends #3. (The squad originally appeared in 1959’s The Brave and the Bold.)
During an overnight shoot, Smith (Deadshot) was seen scooping Robbie (Harley Quinn) off the shattered windshield of a BMW. Also spotted on set were Jay Hernandez (El Diablo), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc) and Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang).
Scott Eastwood, whose character in the movie hasn’t been revealed, was also part of the night shoot.
On Sunday night, crews shut down Bloor Street from Bay St. to Avenue Rd. and littered the high-end shopping district with damaged vehicles and faux-concrete rubble.
Light posts were decorated with banners for Midway City Jazz Festival, Independent Film Fest and the Midway City basketball team, the Sprints.
Most of the street’s storefronts — which includes luxury retailers like Cartier, Tiffany and Prada — were left as is but crews covered up the sign outside Canadian retailer Holt Renfrew Men and created a new window display at Pottery Barn.
Suicide Squad has been filming throughout Toronto since mid-April, including on Lakeshore Boulevard, in the Entertainment District and at Yonge-Dundas Square. Interiors will be shot inside the soundstages of Pinewood Toronto Studios.
(The production will shut down Bay Street between Bloor St. and Davenport Rd. overnight on May 11, 12 and 13.)
The movie follows a team of supervillains who take on dangerous missions for the U.S. government, under the supervision on Dr. Amanda Waller (Davis), in exchange for reduced sentences.
Also in the cast are Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress and Canadian actor Adam Beach stars as Slipknot.
Written and directed by David Ayer (Fury), Suicide Squad also stars Common, Jim Parrack and Ike Barinholtz.
Late last month, Ben Affleck flew into Toronto to shoot some scenes. Affleck plays Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is scheduled for release five months before Suicide Squad.
Suicide Squad is filming in Toronto until the end of August.
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