MOTOWN MOTION PICTURES TO OPEN FACILITY IN MICHIGAN

FILM STUDIO "MOTOWN MOTION PICTURES" COMING TO PONTIAC, MICHIGAN


Pontiac film studio to bring jobs

Michigan's bid to become a Midwest center of movie production is to get a huge boost today with the announcement of a Hollywood film production studio and talent agency opening shop in Pontiac.

Motown Motion Picture Studios, a new company, will open a $54-million, 600,000-square-foot studio and production facility at General Motors Corp.'s former Centerpoint truck plant and office complex in Pontiac, said Gov. Jennifer Granholm's spokeswoman Liz Boyd.

The project is expected to generate more than 3,500 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs.
The governor plans to announce the deal tonight in her State of the State address.
The Hollywood production firm Raleigh Studios is to operate the production site.

A major Hollywood talent agency, Endeavor Agency, helped broker the deal.
The announcement marks the breakthrough the state had hoped to get since the Legislature and governor approved the nation's most generous incentives to lure filmmakers to the state. Since then, 37 films have been made in Michigan, including Clint Eastwood's box-office hit, "Gran Torino."

Mall developer Al Taubman is backing the project financially, along with Oakland County investors, including real estate developers Gary Sakwa and Linden Nelson.

Nelson said Monday night that the new company would work with the Cranbrook Educational Community, Lawrence Technological University, College for Creative Studies in Detroit and other local schools to train students for the film industry.

"It means that your children have a new opportunity, have a new thing that they can stay right here in Michigan. It opens all sorts of opportunities. ... Let's put Michigan back to work," Nelson said.

The new company is expected to receive tax breaks this morning from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority aimed at luring a film industry to the state.
GM spokesman Dan Flores could not confirm details but said that a deal was in the works for the Centerpoint campus.

"GM is in advanced discussions with an interested party regarding the sale of various properties on GM's Pontiac Centerpoint campus," Flores said.
The campus, located to the southwest of the junction of South Boulevard and Opdyke, formerly housed a Pontiac truck assembly plant and, more recently, GM office workers. The campus is now empty.

It is unclear how soon the movie enterprises could move in, using existing buildings. A MEGA spokesperson said work could begin in 60 to 90 days.

There has been speculation for months about possible studios coming to Michigan, including in Allen Park, Muskegon and Ford's shuttered Wixom Assembly Plant.

Although the costs to taxpayers of the financial incentives have been somewhat controversial, Boyd said the new production studio will do what the incentives were designed to -- attract a full-time film industry to Michigan.

Raleigh Studios is an independent production company with sound stages in Hollywood and Manhattan Beach and Playa Vista in California, Budapest and Baton Rouge, La. Studios typically employ carpenters, electricians, caterers, production crews, seamstresses and makeup artists.
"You have to feed the crews," said Mark Adler, director of the Michigan Production Alliance. "And here's a new one for you, everybody's green. We use gypsum and lumber and an enormous amount of plastic and there's a business in hauling that stuff away for recycling."

Local film professionals were delighted with the news, said Jeff Spillman, managing partner at S3 Entertainment Group, a Ferndale production company involved in nine of the films produced in Michigan.

"This will be the first studio to be formally announced for the state," Spillman said. "This will be great for business, because what else is happening in our state that's employing people?"

Coincidentally, the Michigan Film Office and the Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau are to hold a panel discussion and reception for more than 200 movie industry professional in Beverly Hills, Calif., as Granholm is making the announcement in her speech.

"We really have a terrific opportunity to set the record straight with people in the production community and get them up to speed on Detroit," said Chris Baum of the convention and visitors bureau. "I really don't have the details of any announcement, but it would be lucky timing in our case."

Tony Wenson, chief operating officer at the Michigan Film Office who also is attending the Beverly Hills forum, said he will be listening to Granholm's speech with great anticipation.
"We're hoping for further commitments to support this effort to diversify the economy," Wenson said.

The state's film alliance has grown from 60 to 160 members and classes have started in four community colleges and three independent venues to train people to work in the film industry.

"I'm a video assist technician and I've worked on five or six films already," Adler said. "Overall, it's been a shot in the arm for everyone."