The cast and crew of the Sean Connery picture Finding Forrester is scheduled to work here from April 3 to May 1. Good news for the local industry, but it was almost bad news. The city nearly lost its bid to get the production.

Director Gus Van Sant was "skeptical" about getting what he wanted for the New York sequences. And Van Sant is no stranger to the city. He shot some of Good Will Hunting here with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and all of To Die For with Nicole Kidman.

"In the end," says producer Laurence Mark, "he was surprised by what he found in Toronto."

Like what, for instance? "We needed a Bronx ghetto," reports Mark. "They have a Bronx ghetto."

In Finding Forrester, Connery plays a reclusive author who befriends an inner city kid with a natural writing ability.

"The kid is this amazing writing talent," says Mark, "but he has trouble believing that anybody gets out of the ghetto with it. The story is how they help each other."

Sounds like a choice role for an up-and-comer. Mark says that Van Sant is still looking for the right actor.

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