birth mother.

The Divide, a claustrophobic suspense film from director Xavier Gens, stars Michael Biehn of James Cameron's The Terminator and Milo Ventimiglia, the star of the TV series Heroes. The two may not be playing the heroes, exactly, in the film, which commenced shooting Tuesday on location around the Millennium Centre on Main Street.

The film also stars Rosanna Arquette (David Cronenberg's Crash), Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Lauren German, an actress whose credits include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hostel 2. German's character is at the centre of the film, set in New York, which is virtually destroyed in a mysterious explosion in the first act. Eight survivors take refuge in the fallout shelter of an apartment building, where they are menaced first bymysterious men in HazMat suits and eventually by each other.

Biehn was the hero of Cameron's films The Terminator and Aliens, and also played a psychotic Navy SEAL in his sci-fi epic The Abyss.

Gens' last film, Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant (High Life) grossed nearly $100 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. The Divide seems to be modelled more closely in tone to Frontiere(s), his gory 2007 cult horror hit about a female thief forced to do claustrophobic battle with a twisted Nazi family looking to refresh their bloodline.

The Divide was scheduled to begin shooting here earlier but was delayed in part by the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which paralyzed air travel between Europe and North America. Gens is from France.

L.A.-based producer Ross Dinerstein says the bulk of