Pittsburgh Film Industry Discussion

[nhamm10]

YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED NOW FOR THE FILM TAX CREDIT!
Dear Supporters of the Film Industry in SWPA:

Thank you all for your past support of the film industry in SWPA and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As you are aware, we are in the second year of our successful $75 million dollar tax credit program for the film industry and it has continued to show great success for all of us.

Unfortunately, due to the economic crisis, both nationally and statewide,the tax credit for the film industry has become a target for some legislators. It is thought that by eliminating this vital and viable program that the state will save money.

As we all know, this could not be farther from the truth. Since the inception of the tax credits, we have seen over $63 million spent in the SWPA region and over $300 million statewide. Representative Ron Marsico sent the attached press release out yesterday. It is unfortunate that Rep. Marsico does not understand how the tax credit is crucial to the ongoing and growing film industry in Pennsylvania. We need your assistance in helping Rep. Marsico understand that the tax credits are important to you, your livelihood and your businesses.

In addition, Senator Pat Vance has sent out a co-sponsor request for legislation she is planning on introducing that would suspend the film tax credit until 2010.

Both Rep. Marsico's and Senator Vance's contact information is below. If you could please take a moment, call their offices and let him know why it is important to you it would be very helpful and instrumental in helping to keep the tax credits for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

We know next year's budget is going to be tight and there will be a battle over the film industry tax credits, as other groups try to get more for their own industries. This, unfortunately, will probably be the first of many "calls to action" you will receive from the PFO. We will all need to work together to keep this important program intact and growing.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call us at 412-261-2744.

Thank you!



Rep. Ron Marsico Address
>
> Room 218 Ryan Office Building
> Harrisburg, PA 17120-2105
> Office: 717-783-2014 - Harrisburg
> Fax: 717-705-2010 - Harrisburg
>
> 4401 Linglestown Road, Suite B
> Harrisburg, PA 17112
> Office: 717-652-3721
> Fax: 717-652-6276
>
> Email: rmarsico@pahousegop.com
>
>
Senator Patricia Vance
>
> Room 168 Main Capitol Building
> Harrisburg, PA 17120-3031
> Office: 717-787-8524
> Fax: 717-772-0576
>
> 3806 Market Street
> Camp Hill, PA 17011
> Office: 717-975-1985
> Fax: 717-975-2247
>
> Email: pvance@pasen.gov
>
>
>
> Jessica Conner
> Assistant Director
> Pittsburgh Film Office
> The Century Building
> 130 7th Street, Suite 202 - *Please note our new suite number!
> Pittsburgh, PA 15222
> Voice: 412-261-2744
> Fax: 412-471-7317
> Hotline: 412-281-3343
> http://www.pghfilm.org

[Ditchdigger]

I haven't found it mentioned anywhere else here, and this thread seems sort of appropriate...

In October, "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" did an episode here. The house was located in Penn Hills. I don't know what else you'll see of Pittsburgh in the episode, but it airs this coming Sunday, Jan 4, at 8 p.m. on WTAE.

[themaguffin]

I finally saw Smart People last week. It was just ok. I can see why it got mixed though usually moderate reviews.

I think watching Wonder Boys was much better movie of a relatively similar style

[Tombstoner]

Yeah, Wonder Boys was much more atmospheric and "Pittsburgh" (though Smart People wasn't bad...).

[Evergrey]

Unfinished Business: Made-here movies to open here next year

Wednesday, January 07, 2009
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


A scene from "My Bloody Valentine 3D," filmed largely in Tarentum, Kittanning and Ford City.When will all of those movies made in Pittsburgh show up at a theater near me?
Even if you plan to see only movies made in Pittsburgh, you will have to buy at least five or six tickets this year.

First up: "My Bloody Valentine 3D." The remake of the 1981 film of the same name arrives in theaters Jan. 16.

It stars Jensen Ackles from TV's "Supernatural" as Tom Hanninger, an inexperienced coal miner who caused an accident in the tunnels that trapped and killed five men and sent the only survivor, Harry Warden, into a coma.

One year later, Warden wakes up and murders 22 people with a pickaxe before being killed. A decade later, Tom returns to the town of Harmony on Valentine's Day, still haunted by the cascade of calamities but facing yet another killer -- armed, you guessed it, with a pickaxe.

Expect lots of blades to appear to burst through the screen, courtesy of 3-D technology and special polarized glasses.

The movie shot at the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum in Tarentum, and residents and officials of Kittanning and Ford City are among the locals thanked in closing credits. The cast includes Pittsburgher Tom Atkins along with Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Kevin Tighe, Edi Gathegi, Betsy Rue and Megan Boone.

The comedy "Adventureland" will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this month and open in theaters March 27. The Greg Mottola comedy shot extensively at Kennywood in fall 2007 with Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Martin Starr.

"Sorority Row," which staged a graduation on the steps of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in October, is scheduled for an Oct. 2 release. It's an update of 1983's "The House on Sorority Row," filmed near Baltimore.

When five sorority girls inadvertently cause the death of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong, they pledge to never speak of the matter again. But after graduation, a killer goes after the five and anyone who knows their secret. Its cast includes Carrie Fisher, Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung and Audrina Patridge.

"She's Out of My League" is slated for "the fourth quarter of 2009." Jay Baruchel plays an average Joe working as an airport security guard. He -- and his friends -- cannot believe his luck when a successful and beautiful woman falls for him.

And "The Road," once targeted for November 2008, has no new date. It is the most anticipated movie of the bunch, given its Cormac McCarthy source novel and star Viggo Mortensen, but it doesn't exactly scream summer movie. If it doesn't arrive in late spring, expect it in the fall.

Other Pittsburgh projects are still in the process of completion or looking for distribution.

Among them is the thriller "Shelter," starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, which wrapped production here in May. It's too early for a release date because producers are still talking to possible distributors.

KDKA Radio's Larry Richert, meanwhile, reports that "Shannon's Rainbow" is in the home stretch. He and John Mowod are co-producers and writers of the drama about a grieving teen who discovers both the mother she never knew and love for a hobbled horse, Rainbow. The ensemble includes Julianne Michelle, Claire Forlani, Louis Gossett Jr., Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Jason Gedrick and Scott Eastwood.

"We are looking at distribution deals and that will dictate what the game plan is," Richert says. "The good news is, I think we have a nice little picture here," which shows off Western Pennsylvania to good effect. "We had an extraordinary run of weather in June, July and August."

And the granddaddy of them all, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," may or may not return after a lukewarm response to a one-time November showing.

Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632.

[EventHorizon]

Here's the Kennywood-filmed trailer to "Adventureland":

Apple Trailers - Adventureland

[Evergrey]

even if the "Mysters of Pittsburgh" is a disappointing movie... how bad can it be to not even get a release? hundreds of crappy movies are released every year... while the story may perhaps not be on par with the source material... I assume this movie utilizes Pittsburgh as scenery in a way no movie has ever before... I want to see it

[dugdogmaster]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryId=13&cs=1

SIZE="4"]Peace Arch picks up 'Pittsburgh'[/SIZE]
Thurber's 'Mysteries' to open this spring

A year after its Sundance preem, Peace Arch announced they've nabbed North American rights to the coming-of-ager "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," based on Michael Chabon's ("Wonder Boys") first tome. The distrib will release it in the spring.

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber ("Dodgeball") pic stars Jon Foster, Sienna Miller, Mena Suvari, Peter Sarsgaard, and Nick Nolte. Michael London, Thor Benander, and Jason Ajax Mercer produced.

Set in 1980s Pittsburgh, story follows a teen's transformative summer with his mobster father, sometime girlfriend, a beautiful debutante and her thug boyfriend.

"Although set in the early '80s 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh' is as relevant and timeless today as it was when Michael Chabon first wrote it years ago," said London.

The film was co-financed by Axon Films, Sherezade Films and Visitor Pictures. CAA brokered the deal with Peace Arch Home Entertainment.

[Austinlee]

More Than 10 Movies Filmed In Pittsburgh In 2008
Friday, January 23, 2009

http://www.wpxi.com/news/18550755/detail.html

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh is taking the starring role in more and more movies.

The Pittsburgh Film Office said 11 movies were filmed around the area in 2008, including "She's Out Of My League" at the Mellon Arena.

The movies generated an estimated $50 million for the Pittsburgh-area economy. Many filmmakers have chosen to shoot in the area because of state tax credits.
Copyright 2009 by WPXI.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Dr Nevergold]

What were the other 10 movies? LOL

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09069...pid=newspanel0

April bringing a shower of TV and film projects

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
By Rob Owen and Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After CBS's "Three Rivers" flows through Pittsburgh, an FX pilot and a feature film will follow.

"Warrior," a mixed-martial arts movie starring Nick Nolte, joins the TV projects shooting in our region.

Nolte, who played the gangster father of Art Bechstein in "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," is returning to town for "Warrior," directed by Gavin O'Connor ("Pride and Glory"). The filmmakers will shoot some scenes at the Petersen Events Center. "Warrior" will mark the third Lionsgate project here, after Spike TV's "Kill Point" and the recent horror movie "My Bloody Valentine 3D."

Nolte will play a Vietnam veteran and one-time boxer, steelworker and alcoholic. Now sober and remorseful, he trains his son, played by Tom Hardy (last seen as Handsome Bob the wheelman in "RocknRolla"), to compete in a mixed martial arts tournament.

The cast also includes Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Morrison ("House"), with production to start in April. Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said "Warrior" should be in town through the end of June and that there will be plenty of chances for Pittsburghers to sign on as crew members or extras.

The untitled FX TV drama from writer/executive producer Graham Yost ("Boomtown") is based on an Elmore Leonard short story, "Fire in the Hole," about a federal marshal in Kentucky. Pittsburgh will play the part of Kentucky.

Don Kurt, producer of the FX project, said it will shoot both in the city and outlying areas that have yet to be determined. No casting for the program has been announced.

"The tax incentive is one of the most important things but it has to work aesthetically for the project," said Kurt, who arrives in Pittsburgh to begin pre-production today. "The area works for re-creating certain parts of Western Kentucky where there are coal mines."

"I can't remember the last time we had two pilots shooting in Pittsburgh," said Keezer of the unprecedented level of local prime-time TV production. "It's all because of our film tax credit program. We're glad to be putting more people back to work in southwestern Pennsylvania."

Michael Dinner, a veteran of the pilot episodes for "Sons of Anarchy," "The Beast" and the new "Bionic Woman," will direct the FX pilot, which begins 12 days of production locally on April 13. Production on CBS's "Three Rivers," which begins March 23, will have wrapped by then.

A pilot is a test episode for a proposed TV series. Networks make the pilots and decide later whether to proceed with additional episodes. CBS will likely decide the fate of "Three Rivers" by mid-May. There's no timetable for a decision on the FX pilot.

No information is available on extras casting for the projects. "Warrior" is now accepting crew resumes at warriormovie@gmail.com.
Rob Owen can be reached at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1112. Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632.

[dugdogmaster]

Three Rivers is a story about organ transplant doctors from Three Rivers Medical Center in Pittsburgh. How fitting

This massive production studio in The Strip can't open soon enough!

[ColDayMan]

Pittsburgh will play the part of Kentucky.

Lord, Lexington can have a day off.

[Evergrey]

Mysteries of Pittsburgh Trailer

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/180976...ideo/12413241/

[Tombstoner]

Sorry this is very "old news" but a friend brought me a DVD of "Zack and Miri..." and I have to pronounce it the BEST FILM EVER! The writing, the acting, set design... "Seventh Seal" it's not, and it did not for a second make me ponder my existence, but I don't remember when I was so entertained (even on the 9th viewing). Kevin Smith and Brandon St. Randy rule!

[AaronPGH]

Just got back from seeing Adventureland and I was extremely impressed with it. Very intelligent, funny and dramatic. It's getting extremely good reviews too. A shame it didn't do very well at the box office for it's opening. It deserves a hell of a lot more press & money than Fast & Furious.

[Evergrey]

how's the Pittsburgh content?

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

how's the Pittsburgh content?

Shots of the Monroeville mall and lots of PGH scenery. Other than the mall there aren't a lot of specific landmarks in it, but they definitely nailed the feel of 1987 Pittsburgh. Dive bars, older working class suburbs, lots of hills, etc... It was definitely not a slapstick comedy though, which is what we were expecting from the trailer. It was more of a romance sprinkled with witty humor.

[themaguffin]

Bridge to growth: Can Pittsburgh become a permanent film industry hub?
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley

Joe Wojcik
Lee Worthington and his Downtown-based production company, Bridge City Films, is seeking money to finance the production of “Body Farm,” a horror film that would potentially star Ernie Hudson and Richard Christy.
View Larger On the 18th floor of the Investment Building Downtown, the dreams of Lee Worthington, Brandon Keenan, Jessica Pollak and John Gallagher have an address, a conference room and enough office space to plot a strategy so their new film production company, Bridge City Films, can get its start in the high-risk world of moviemaking.

Now, in a wallet-torturing recession, all Bridge City needs is a couple million dollars to produce “Body Farm,” the Keenan-penned horror script for which the company already has committed lead actors, including Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters”) and Richard Christy (“The Howard Stern Show”).

“It’s kind of difficult to ask someone for $2 million when you’re in your basement,” said Worthington, 30.

They are committed to proving their production company is a real business, and have a goal of producing three films in the next five years. They say they can start shooting the company’s first film as soon as they get funding.

Bridge City is another modest sign of growth for a local film industry seeking to establish a permanent hub in a fickle field in which projects migrate to money, states are always upping the ante in public incentives and everybody wants a piece of the action.

As location scouts flock to town at the first signs of spring, Bridge City’s efforts are just part of a wave of filmmaking activity here. Despite a Screen Actors Guild labor agreement impasse that has stretched on for months, that includes a host of major studio productions that Pittsburgh Film Office President and CEO Dawn Keezer expects to surpass 2008’s recording-breaking year, when 11 films invested $50 million in southwestern Pennsylvania and nearly $300 million statewide.

There are plenty of signs, large and small, of ongoing investment in Pittsburgh’s new film industry.

A few months ago, Entertainment Partners, the largest payroll service for the film industry, opened a Pittsburgh office to serve the growing number film industry employees here. Film production locals have nearly doubled their membership in the last year or so.

Recently, Mike Wittlin Productions test-screened a film produced in Pittsburgh last year called “In NorthWood,” shot largely on Mount Washington, with the hope it will be released and distributed to 1,200 screens by a major independent distributor whose name he declined to mention. The film stars Nick Stahl (“Terminator 3”) and Olivia Wilde (TV’s “House”).

And Pittsburgh Business Radio, AM 1360, is preparing to launch a regular radio show on the local film production business.

HOLLYWOOD DREAMS, LOCAL STUDIOS
Pittsburgh firms are building the facilities to host major films.

Smithfield Production’s Island Studios in McKees Rocks began hosting productions last year, including DreamWorks SKG on a feature called “She’s Out of My League” as well as a film staring former “Saturday Night Live” cast members called “Hollywood and Whine.”

In the Strip District, Mogul Mind Studios has invested $2.3 million so far to begin soundproofing the former Pittsburgh Flatroll complex into a comprehensive studio campus that can eventually host six or seven major productions at once on some of the biggest sound stages in the world. The company hopes to begin hosting productions in the next few months.

On a recent tour, Mogul Mind CEO John Yost provided a before-and-after blur of plans for the long-unused industrial building.

Yost sees an administrative office where there is now a methadone clinic; dressing rooms and offices for A-list talent where there is a loading dock; and post-production facilities, catering, a water tank and a rain room where there is mostly 330,000 square feet of empty space.

“What will it cost? Millions,” Yost said. “Who will pay for it? Not sure.”

Yet, Yost’s confidence in a project estimated to cost $30 million is obvious.

It’s generated in part by the interest from the major studios in California.

That interest came before Mogul Mind was involved with the facility, said Jared Leland, a Downtown-based entertainment lawyer and director of Mogul Mind. Last year, as productions began seeking locations in Pittsburgh after Pennsylvania increased its film production tax credit, David Kowalski and his son, Brian, owners of the building who are now partners in Mogul Mind, started getting phone calls from Hollywood studios.

“It was the industry that sold him,” Leland said.

THINK HOLLYWOOD, ACT LOCAL?

Even as a small, new company such as Bridge City works to get started here, the major studios are scouting right now, Keezer said.

Because New York’s film incentives, for which applications can be made for future use, are spoken for until 2013, she said Pittsburgh is in the running for two TV pilots, while a third, the CBS medical drama “Three Rivers,” is shooting in Oakland. She said the region could land two or three $100 million productions, major motion pictures that could dwarf the $20 million films typically shot here.

It’s that kind of ongoing influx of work that helps such locally grown talent to find work as they build and develop their own projects, said Keezer, who believes the investments of Mogul Mind and Smithfield Productions come as a positive outgrowth of the other, bigger work that comes from Hollywood. Whatever grows here locally always will depend on Pennsylvania’s incentives, a 25 percent tax credit to film productions that spend 60 percent of their budgets in the state, capped annually at $75 million.

“I don’t think it was ever designed as a way for this industry to become completely self-sufficient,” she said of the tax credit, under attack annually in Harrisburg. “It doesn’t work that way as an economic model.”

Mike Wittlin, who splits time between Pittsburgh and Florida, agreed. He is planning to shoot two films here this year.

“The tax incentives are a standard part of the Hollywood model,” he said, admitting he may look elsewhere. “You lose that, and you lose the movies.”

While a firm believer in the tax credit program, Yost is planning for a future sustainable without them.

He is building what he describes as a film production office park that can offer moviemakers anything and everything they might need, creating efficiencies and cost savings of all kinds that can lure them with or without incentives. His dream is to build an industry here that keeps writers, actors and production professionals working with support services that can include everything from dry cleaners to carpenters.

“If I build my model on tax credits, what kind of fool am I?” Yost said.

[nhamm10]

Vote to have X-Men Wolverine with Hugh Jackman have its world premiere in Pittsburgh. The city with the most votes gets to host the movie and stars for it's big premiere. Great for showing off Pittsburgh and boosting our film industry!!! Vote Now!

http://www.x-menorigins.com/premiere/