TORONTO - You could really feel the love yesterday as a beaming Premier Dalton McGuinty basked in the warm glow of pop music legend Sir Elton John, while dropping a $23-million cheque on local digital media company Starz Animation.
"It's really great to see you here and on a personal note I'll tell you why," McGuinty said, recounting how he had bought most of John's chart-busting early records, including the 1973 hit double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
"It was the first gift I gave to a girl at high school I really liked. And it worked -- we dated for seven years; we've been married for 28."
McGuinty and his wife, Terri, were planning on taking in the singer's concert at the Air Canada Centre last night.
McGuinty joked John could replace departing Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant in his cabinet.
In return, John spoke warmly of Canada and the McGuinty government's support for creative industries -- a subject close to his heart as Starz Animation is doing work on his decade-long labour of love called Gnomeo and Juliet.
The oft-delayed film -- an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragic romance, except with garden gnomes -- is set for a U.K. release in 2010.
"This film -- Gnomeo and Juliet -- has been around for a very long time and we're very excited about the project," John said to a breathless crowd of staff packed into the company's Richmond St. headquarters. "We've seen it die and we've seen it come to life again."
When the film finally got the green light from Miramax Pictures, John said there was no hesitation in coming to Toronto to do the CGI gnomes.
"We looked at quite a few (studios), but we were overwhelmingly blown away by the facility at Starz here," he said. "It was a no-brainer really where we would come and do it."
Starz could become the greatest animation studio in North America, John said.
The government investment in Starz is worth $23 million over five years from the government's Next Generation Jobs Fund. That money -- along with $130 million the company is kicking in -- will create or retain 250 jobs. There are already 220 people working at the studio.
