Martin Sheen, Dennis Haysbert, Santino Fontana & Others Set For Dramedy ‘Lost & Found In Cleveland’

(Top L-R) Martin Sheen, Dennis Haysbert, June Squibb, (Bottom L-R) Stacy Keach, Yvette Yates Redick and Santino Fontana Getty Images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Deadline.com | Matt Grobar
February 10, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Impossible Dream Entertainment and Double G Films have set a stacked cast for their dramatic comedy Lost & Found in Cleveland, marking the feature debut of writer-directors Marisa Guterman and Keith Gerchak. Leads for the film, currently in production in Cleveland, include Emmy and Golden Globe winner Martin Sheen (Grace and Frankie), Golden Globe nominee Dennis Haysbert (Far from Heaven), Oscar nominee June Squibb (Nebraska), Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach (Nebraska), Independent Spirit Award winner Yvette Yates Redick (Inherent Vice) and Tony Award winner Santino Fontana (Broadway’s Tootsie).

An adult drama targeted toward the audience that recently made Paramount & Fifth Season’s 80 for Brady a hit, Lost & Found in Cleveland is billed as a new American fable about the post-Industrial American Dream in the Industrial Midwest — a slice-of-life depiction over a 24-hour period that follows the personal odysseys of five very different people, whose lives intertwine when America’s favorite televised antiques appraisal show comes to their city.

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Film Commission races to develop film production workforce, attract more movies to Cleveland

On the set of the 2022 film “White Noise” in Cleveland. (Courtesy Angela Boehm Casting)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: The Land | Christina Easter
February 7, 2023

Northeast Ohio has a starring role when it comes to choosing a location to make a blockbuster movie, thanks to a growing list of film industry experts who keep their talents in Cleveland. The Greater Cleveland Film Commission, Angela Boehm casting agency, sound engineer and Oscar Academy member Marlowe Taylor, Cleveland State University, and Cuyahoga Community College are among the many entities preparing locals to work on made-in-The-Land movies.

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed, as Moviemaker Magazine ranked Cleveland 12 out of 25 best places to live and work as a filmmaker in 2022. This was up two places from 2021 when the city was ranked 14th after $106.6 million of the $190 million spent on film production in Ohio was spent in Cleveland.

A few of the films made in the area during the last couple of years include LeBron James’ biopic Shooting Stars” in Cleveland, Akron, and around Northeast Ohio; “White Noise” in Cleveland and around Northeast Ohio; and “Judas and the Black Messiah” in Cleveland and Mansfield. The Greater Cleveland Film Commission says even more production could be brought to Ohio – and Cleveland in particular – if the state’s tax incentive cap were removed.

The Lakeview Cemetery dam appeared in “Captain America: Winter Soldier.” (Photo by Bill Garvey, Greater Cleveland Film Commission)

Advocating for Cleveland filmmaking

Movie producers and studios choose Northeast Ohio due in part to the advocacy work of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission (the Commission), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to attract, educate, and advocate for film production and build an artistic infrastructure in Northeast Ohio. In late September, Cleveland City Council authorized the Director of Economic Development to renew the Commission’s $250,000 annual grant to support economic development in the movie industry here in Cleveland.

“During the year, the film commission sifts through the 4,000 projects that are in development at any one time to find the ones that would be successful here,” Bill Garvey, president of the Commission, told The Land. “We also cultivate relationships with producers and studios by bringing them here, scouting filming locations, and taking pictures – which is a full-time job and expensive.”

Garvey was appointed president of the Commission in October 2021, after years of traveling to scout locations for films as a locations manager. Growing up, Garvey was a movie buff, so while in college at University of Notre Dame he took one of the few film courses offered. This was the same time the movie “Rudy” was being filmed on campus, and the professor got the director to do a lecture for the class.

“Here was a professional movie buff sitting in front of me telling me he made his living working on a career he loved,” said Garvey. “A light bulb went on and I had an epiphany to do something that I loved. So, I haven’t looked back and 26 years later, I have a career in the movie industry.”

Garvey and his four-person staff are making Cleveland a moviemaking destination by showcasing the city’s architecture and chameleon-like features which can be adapted to suit the creative expectations of producers looking for a film home. Garvey also says the Commission is laser-focused on teaching high school and college students every aspect of filmmaking such as  screenwriting, cinematography, special effects, post-production, lighting, and camera.

“There are hundreds of jobs on a movie set but everyone only knows about directors, actors, and maybe the writer,” said Garvey. “We are fortunate to have a very capable crew base in Cleveland with amazing people doing amazing work that have agreed to help us teach. We have filmmakers who have won Emmys and are part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars Academy).”

Native Clevelander and sound editor Marlowe Taylor on set. (Courtesy Marlowe Taylor)

Supporting and growing film production expertise in Cleveland 

A robust local infrastructure of skilled production professionals is key in attracting film projects. Marlowe Taylor says that for more movies to come to Cleveland, studios and producers have to know that we have “A1 people” in key roles like camera, props, set decorations, and sound. Taylor, a Cleveland-based sound engineer, is known for his work on “Alex Cross” (2012), “The Kings of Summer” (2013), “Queen and Slim” (2019), and “The Marksman” (2021).

Taylor was a DJ while in high school but quickly learned about audio engineering after a singer offered to pay him $25 to record her voice on a loop so she could rap over it. He went on to graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in audio and a masters of fine arts from Ohio University. Taylor also started his own music studio, and rappers from across the country came to Cleveland to record their songs. When Taylor began doing sound for movies, he chose to focus on movies as his “Mauly sound” became more in demand.

“I am a person from Cleveland, die-hard Clevelander, been here my whole life, and I made it work all the way through being inducted in the Oscar Academy last year,” Taylor said. “I am proof that it can be done here.”

Training opportunities in film production are now more available in Cleveland than they were when Taylor was starting out. In October 2018, Cleveland State University completed construction of its School of Film & Media Arts funded in part by a $7.5 million grant from the State of Ohio. The facility is located in The Idea Center at Playhouse Square and has adaptable film production studios, digital editing bays, high-tech teaching labs, and smart classrooms, according to the school’s website.

Tri-C’s film academy has a film intensive training course that was developed by the Commission and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE Local 209) to teach students the skills needed to be a film and media technician and crew member.

Taylor believes that more work can be done: boosting film in schools for the arts, and encouraging students to participate in Angela Boehm and Lillian Pyles casting programs, college film programs, and Greater Cleveland Film Commission workshops.

Angela Boehm started Angela Boehm Casting 10 years ago. “Our studio is in Great Northern Mall and people walk past it not knowing that we are casting people to act opposite of Hanks,” Boehm said. “And I don’t think people realize the amount of money a film being produced in Cleveland brings to the city.”

Boehm recalls production companies that rented a shaved ice truck and coffee truck during filming of “Shooting Stars”; the opening of a tab at Starbucks and Quiznos during filming of “Captain America”; the rental of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame by the filmmaker Russo brothers for a party during filming of “Cherry”; and the purchase of Indians tickets for crew members of one film.

“They are supporting our city and this is just a glimpse of the funds coming in from these films,” Boehm said. “This excludes the hotels they are using and costumes they buy for all of their principal and background cast.”

Boehm remembers when one production would come and then it would be a year or two before another would come. She also remembers when local “extras” were not prepared when they arrived for casting sessions and people overall just didn’t get it. “But this has changed,” Boehm said.

This photo of Scranton Road in the Flats is part of the film commission’s portfolio of images of Cleveland that demonstrate the range of settings available here. (Photo by Bill Garvey, Greater Cleveland Film Commission)

Advocating for a change in Ohio tax law to attract even more filming

Although more than 300 productions have been filmed in Ohio since 2007, and passage of the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit (OMPTC) in 2009 has resulted in the state receiving $1.2 billion in economic impact and over 7,000 jobs, the Commission is advocating that more be done. The Commission says that to take Ohio’s media industry to the next level, the tax incentive must be increased and rolling application periods be adopted (currently, there are tax credit application windows that close, discouraging some productions on a tight timeline from filming in Ohio).

Although nearly $170 million in movie production costs was spent in the state in 2021, $224.5 million was turned away because of the current $40 million cap, Garvey told city council in the fall, and 2022 was showing a similar trend. Removal of the cap and the resulting increase in filming could also affect other economic prospects, such as construction of a permanent soundstage in Cleveland and full-time, year-round employment for more locals in the film industry, he suggested.

Ward 6 Councilman and council president Blaine Griffin expressed concern that a biopic of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony may be filmed in another state which doesn’t have a cap on its tax incentive. “We believe that the movie of our hometown kids should be done in Cleveland,” Griffin said. “But because of the window and the cap, there is a potential that the movie will be made in another state.”

Last year in May, Senate Bill 341 (SB 341) was introduced to the State Senate, House Ways and Means Committee to request modification of the OMPTC, and removal of the cap in particular. “The bill is currently working its way through the process of being passed but it will take a moment to get there,” said Garvey, who doesn’t know when the process will move forward. “It’s on the agenda, and we will be vocal.”

“It’s hard when you’re on and off of work, but if the incentive passes, we’re just going to be able to do what we love and work full-time,” casting director Boehm said. “Right now, we have to get everyone’s skillset together because there will be an onslaught of work, and we will have to be able to handle the load.” If Cleveland isn’t ready, she says, productions will bring out-of-state professionals to do the work.


AUTHOR

CHRISTINA EASTER is a freelance writer in Cleveland who participated in The Land’s community journalism program.

Best Places to Live and Work as a MovieMaker, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: MoveMaker Magazine | Tim Molloy
January 18, 2023

If we made a list of the Most Obvious Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker, New York and Los Angeles would lead it every year. They’re the film capitals of the world, unmatched in influence, opportunity and legend. So years ago, we retired them to our Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker Hall of Fame, where they stand alone and unrivaled, except by each other.

They also stand out in expense. The Worldwide Cost of Living Index just released by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that New York tied Singapore for the most expensive city in the world. Tel Aviv was next, and Los Angeles and Hong Kong were tied for fourth.

We don’t believe people should have to be rich or well-connected to make movies. And we know plenty of people who moved to L.A. or New York with filmmaking dreams and ended up working industry-barely-adjacent jobs just to pay the bills. We think the best place to live is one you can afford — a place where you can be happy, inspired, and financially free to pursue your art.

That philosophy factored highly into the creation of this list. We based it on surveys with film officials, discussions with filmmakers, independent research into cost of living and quality of life, and, whenever possible, visits to the cities and towns on this list.

 

 

Crain’s Cleveland Business | Film Commission Creates Chief Diversity Officer Position

Lowell W. Perry Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Crain’s Cleveland Business
January 4, 2023

The Greater Cleveland Film Commission enters the new year with a new executive position.

The organization announced it has named Lowell W. Perry Jr. to the new role of chief diversity officer, vice president corporate and community engagement, effective immediately.

In a news release, the film commission said Perry “brings a proven track record of success in nonprofit and for-profit executive management, along with a broad-based organizational development background and significant expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion, community outreach, advocacy, strategic alliances and fundraising.”

Perry most recently was executive director of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area in Yuma, Arizona. In that position, the film commission said, he attracted more than $11.25 million in restoration and preservation commitments for the Yuma Territorial Prison and Colorado River State Historic Park to promote his vision for a “Historic Yuma Experience.”

Prior to that, Perry led the Central Promise Neighborhood, a program of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland. He also was chief diversity officer, senior vice president corporate and community engagement for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Film commission president Bill Garvey said in a statement that Perry, a graduate of Yale University, will help the organization “grow the number of local motion picture jobs and develop a more diverse workforce.”

The film commission says that since 2009, it has attracted more than 300 productions to the region, most recently Netflix’s “White Noise” and Universal Pictures’ “Shooting Stars,” a LeBron James biopic.

Ready Steady Cut | Where Was White Noise Filmed?

Gretta Gerwig in WHITE NOISE | Netflix

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Ready Steady Cut | Amanda Guarragi
December 30, 2022

Where was the Netflix film White Noise filmed? We discuss the popular film and its locations and settings. It may contain minor plot references.

White Noise directed by Noah Baumbach is a dramatization of an American family attempting to deal with the conflicts of everyday life. Baumbach explores the themes of love, death and the possibility of happiness in an unpredictable world. Many people can relate to the characters in the film because we are all currently living in the same situation. After going through a global trauma simultaneously, it’s hard to find the positivity to live again and find meaning in the world.

Day-to-day activities seem strenuous and have changed the way we view the world. Baumbach, in his own way, added humor to daily events to create that silver lining for his characters and the audience. It’s difficult to get through the day sometimes because it’s so repetitive and bleak, especially during the winter months. And Baumbach wanted to add humor to everything being unpredictable or something going wrong for that reason. Life isn’t perfect at all and Baumbach wanted to show that through this one family. That becomes more relatable to audiences than having a perfect fairytale on the screen to get whisked away in.

White Noise is a film that can be considered a hit or a miss for audiences because of the way the story is told. Baumbach’s scripts sometimes don’t sit well with people, so it’ll be interesting to see where the Netflix viewers land on this one.

 

 

Cleveland.com | Movie Mecca The Last Moving Picture Company Sells Hollywood Magic From Base In Kirtland

The Last Moving Picture Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Cleveland.dom | John S. Matuszak, special to cleveland.com
December 29, 2022

KIRTLAND, Ohio – As the movie award season lights up and the red carpets roll out, film lovers don’t have to travel all the way to California to experience spectacular Hollywood magic.

In Kirtland, inside a nondescript building on Route 306, resides what is purported to be the largest private collection of movie posters and memorabilia in the world.

And it’s all for sale at the shop at The Last Moving Picture Company at 10535 Chillicothe Road.

“We’re the mecca” for collectors, publications and other outlets around the globe seeking authentic pieces of cinema history, said Morris Everett Jr., owner of the operation.

 

GCFC President Bill Garvey Named to 2022 Crain’s Power 150 List

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Crain’s Cleveland Business
December 28, 2022

From CEOs and politicians to philanthropists and entrepreneurs, Crain’s “Power 150” list is just a snapshot of those leading some of Northeast Ohio’s most influential organizations and who are in a position to move the region forward. There were no specific criteria used in selecting the “Power 150,” nor were they chosen through a nomination process. Rather, our editorial staff collectively gathered names, taking into consideration each person’s role in Northeast Ohio and that of their organization. An effort was made to include a range of people, businesses and industries. Because many of those listed serve on multiple boards, we limited highlighted involvement to three organizations or efforts. The 2022 “Power 150” is an updated version of the 2020 “Power 150,” 2014 “Power 150” and the 2017 “Who’s Who in Northeast Ohio” lists.

Read the profiles of 2022 Crain’s Power 150.

Get access to all our coverage with a subscription to Crain’s Cleveland Business.


Bill Garvey
President, Greater Cleveland Film Commission

Highlighted Involvement: Leadership Cleveland

In the news: A year after helping Cleveland land Netflix’s “White Noise,” Garvey and the GCFC worked with Universal on the $25 million LeBron James movie “Shooting Stars.” The Queens, New York, native has worked to add “The Land” to Hollywood. His newest mission? Expanding the state’s tax incentive for films. “Ultimately these projects depend on a tax incentive to come,” he told Cleveland.com

‘White Noise’ review: Disaster movie filmed in Cleveland is an entertaining enigma

WHITE NOISE – (Front L-R) Greta Gerwig as Babette, Dean Moore/Henry Moore as Wilder and Adam Driver as Jack (Back L-R) Raffey Cassidy as Denise, May Nivola as Steffie and Sam Nivola as Heinrich in White Noise. Netflix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Cleveland.com | Joey Morona
November 30, 2022

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Early in “White Noise,” the filmed-in-Northeast Ohio movie opening at the Cedar Lee Theatre on Friday and streaming on Netflix starting December 30, parents Jack (Adam Driver) and Babette (Greta Gerwig) argue with their kids Denise (Raffey Cassidy), Heinrich (Sam Nivola) and Steffi (May Nivola) over whether the toxic, black smoke headed for their town is a “feathery plume” or a “billowing cloud.”

In a typical disaster movie, the protagonists would be getting the hell out of dodge instead of debating semantics. But while writer-director Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel has all the trappings of a disaster film, it turns out to be much more: a marriage story, a professor movie, even a neo-noir comedy.

These characters aren’t simply trying to make it out of the so-called “airborne toxic event” alive and back home to their cupboards of cereal. In fact, the “disaster” in the disaster movie isn’t even their biggest obstacle. It’s trying to find hope and happiness amid all the “white noise” in the world: excessive consumerism, looming environmental catastrophe, the breakdown of religion, the spread of misinformation, the constant fear of death, etc.,

So, yeah, it’s a lot.

“White Noise” is full of big ideas. In less capable hands, they might come off as overhanded and didactic. But Baumbach’s flair for dialogue (nominated twice for an Oscar for best original screenplay) is like a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down. There is an inexplicable beauty in his script. Mundane discussions — and there are quite a few of them in this film — sound like poetry. I could listen to Jack and Babette argue over the language of trashy romance novels or Don Cheadle’s Professor Murray Siskind lecture about the evolution of car crash scenes in Hollywood movies all day.

But I suspect you wouldn’t want to watch that movie.

It’s 1985 and this is the story of Jack Gladney, an enigma of an academic who teaches Hitler studies at the local college but doesn’t speak German. He lives in a state of constant dread and insecurity. Babette, who teaches fitness classes and reads for the elderly, conceals her anxiety under her big, glorious head of hair, secretly popping off-market pills to help her cope. Each of their kids (Wilder, played by twins Dean and Henry Moore, is the fourth) is better equipped to handle the pending crisis.

Sam Nivola as Heinrich, Adam Driver as Jack, May Nivola as Steffie, Greta Gerwig as Babette, Dean Moore/Henry Moore as Wilder and Raffey Cassidy as Denise in the Netflix release “White Noise.”Wilson Webb/Netflix

That crisis, err, the airborne toxic event, is the result of a spectacular collision between a train and a tanker trunk. Suddenly, their delicate family dynamic is thrown into chaos and a seemingly endless series of traffic jams and overcrowded evacuation centers. Jack, despite his intellectual bona fides, is totally inept at keeping it together and only adds to the mass hysteria surrounding them. Think if “The Day After Tomorrow” was a comedy.

But cheating death, which they do, just makes matters worse. When Jack learns he’s been exposed to the toxins and probably has only “15 to 30 years” to live, as a disaster simulation intern tells him, he treats it as a death sentence despite all of the other, more immediate health ailments he faces. Babette, meanwhile, becomes even more distant and lost in those pills until Jack confronts her to reveal the truth because, as he puts it to her, “the point of Babette is that she reveals and confides.”

From there, the film goes off the rails in a noir-ish third act as both Jack and Babette are sent over the edge and driven to acts of desperation. The tonal shift is the kind of WTF moment that might make you give up on a movie. But not one that features Driver, pot-bellied and disheveled, delivering one of his best performances as the perpetually exasperated Jack; or Gerwig, more known for her directing and screenwriting efforts than her acting but a revelation here as the quietly, but deeply traumatized Babette.

For the hundreds of industry professionals from the region and thousands of local background actors who worked on the film, the best performance perhaps comes courtesy of Northeast Ohio itself. Baumbach’s 1980s utopia looks stunning in all of its 35mm glory as he, director of photography Lol Crawley and production designer Jess Gonchor transformed Wellington in Lorain County into the idyllic college town of Blacksmith and Downtown Cleveland into its rustbelt neighbor of Iron City. You might have to look closely to see it, but when you know, you know.

Earlier this year, I was watching the closing night film of the Cleveland International Film Festival and, at the end of it, a woman in front of me stood up and said to her companion, “I liked it, I just don’t know how to articulate it.” I had the same reaction when someone asked me on my way out of the theater what I thought of “White Noise.” I have a feeling others will, too.

That’s because Baumbach has made a bold, genre-busting film that has plenty to say and says it in an inventive way that is equally brilliant and frustrating. The ending, for instance, might be a little bit too Hollywood for some tastes. Still, no matter what you make of its sometimes meandering plot or somewhat muddled message, you can’t help but be charmed by the film’s undeniably quirky spirit.

It just might make you want to dance the “New Body Rhumba” in a grocery store.

Behind The Scenes: Netflix Spends $100+ Million Filming “White Noise” in Cleveland

Courtesy of Netflix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Cleveland Magazine | Dillon Stewart
November 23, 2022

The new movie starring Adam Driver filmed for more than six months, tapped into local crews and used Wellington, Akron and downtown Cleveland to create the universe of Don DeLillo’s iconic novel. By Dillon Stewart

Late last July, actors Greta Gerwig and Adam Driver mill around outside Addie’s Antiques in Wellington, 45 minutes southwest of Cleveland. Chatting off camera, Gerwig sports a frizzy mop of hairsprayed curls, and Driver hides a paunch under a plaid dress shirt. Most businesses neighboring Addie’s, an actual functioning antique shop, have been transformed into brightly colored restaurants, nightclubs and other fictional storefronts. Sitting in lawn chairs next to paparazzi, locals gawk at the spectacle as if watching an Independence Day parade, and some even get in on the action as extras on this Hollywood film set.

The meta ‘80s fever dream is the brainchild of director Noah Baumbach for his upcoming film, White Noise. But Hollywood descending upon Northeast Ohio is becoming a common scene. Fast and the Furious and Captain America: Winter Soldier shot scenes in and around Downtown Cleveland, and White Boy Rick and Cherry, directed by Cleveland natives John and Joe Russo, filmed almost entirely in the area. Heck, this is even the second film to hit Wellington, a town of just more than 4,000, which hosted Liam Neeson’s film The Minuteman in 2019.

Courtesy of Netflix

But White Noise is different. Author Don DeLillo’s timely, anxiety-riddled ‘80s novel was deemed by some in the industry as “unadaptable” after a few false starts in the early 2000s. The book’s overwhelming feeling of existential dread, strong internal dialogue and unseen threat probably abetted that narrative. But doing it right, according to Baumbach, was enough to give most money men a different kind of dread.

Local crew members describe a spare-no-expense approach that included shutting down a stretch of highway for six weeks, transforming an abandoned Walmart into a film stage, building a faux motel under the Inner Belt Bridge in the Flats, digging a river in rural Ohio and spinning dozens of rolls of real, tactile film.

And that’s exactly what Netflix did. Bill Garvey, president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, estimates White Noisespent more than $100 million in Northeast Ohio — the most of any movie to date. Netflix’s original budget was about $82 million, but an extended shoot and an artist-first philosophy drove that up to a rumored $140 million, though official audits won’t come out until next year.

“We have such a diversity of looks here,” says Garvey. “That and the logistical ease of working here is what gets them here. But it is limited by the $40 million [tax incentive] cap we have.”

Production designer Jess Gonchor, who won an Academy Award for True Grit in 2010, is a master of building universes. This project called for a true-to-life Midwestern setting, one with spacious supermarkets, a boy scout camp, a college campus and housing stock that looked like Anywhere, USA. Only one place came to mind: Northeast Ohio.

“I don’t think we could have done this anywhere else in the country,” says Gonchor. “We took major advantages of the locations and kindness of the people. There are not a lot of places that are interested in letting you do that kind of stuff.”

Tasked with setting the scene for DeLillo’s novel, which follows a professor and his family as they react to an airborne toxic event in a “Middle America” college town, Gonchor first explored upstate New York, near Buffalo. Around the time that fell through, Gonchor found an interview where DeLillo mentioned being inspired by a supermarket in Chagrin Falls.

Gonchor never found that supermarket, but two hours west of Buffalo, he did find the perfect location to recreate the book’s fictional town of Blacksmith. In the classrooms of the University of Akron, he saw Jack Gladney’s lecture hall. Wellington and Oberlin perfectly played the cozy town surrounding “College-on-the-Hill.” Peninsula’s Camp Manitoc had a dusty sheen of reality perfect for the boy scout camp to which the Gladney family would eventually escape.

Still, Gonchor admits the deciding factor typically comes down to budget and logistical ease.

“I always try to do, first and foremost, what’s right for the movie,” he says. “But, fortunately and unfortunately, a lot of movies these days are driven by tax incentives.”

The Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit incentives were created in 2009 to encourage studios to make movies, shows, video games, theatrical productions and more in the state. For those spending more than $300,000, Ohio offers a refundable tax credit of 30% on production cast and crew wages and other in-state spending.

But Ohio caps these incentives at a combined $40 million per year. That means if (the fictional) LeBron James on Ice eats up $20 million in tax credits, the studio behind The Wild Adventures of Cleveland Magazine Editor Dillon Stewart (in the very early stages of pre-production) only has the remaining $20 million with which to play.

Courtesy of Netflix

Meanwhile, states such as New Mexico and Louisiana have used a $100 million cap to become leaders in the film industry, and Georgia pulled in $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2022 by not having any cap at all.

Opponents call these credits a bad deal for taxpayers. They say these filmmakers would work here anyway. But Garvey points to ripples like the 36,000 nights spent in local hotels by White Noise crewmembers. The NFL Draft, meanwhile, saw an 85% hotel occupancy rate among 26 hotels for one weekend — a number closer to 10,000 nights. A study by consulting firm Olsberg SPI found, from 2010-2020, a $3.09 return for every dollar in tax credits and that 134 projects created 6,192 full-time equivalent jobs and $1.1 billion in total gross economic output. Meanwhile, more than $200 million was turned away due to the tax incentive cap, Garvey says.

“The opportunities have grown exponentially over the past few years, but it’s not at its peak,” says Evan Prunty, co-founder of Black Valve Media who served as a video playback operator on White Noise. Throughout DeLillo’s novel, television clips puncture real life with snippets of consumer culture, creating a uniquely modern state of anxiety. Prunty worked to recreate that motif with the television sets and other circa-1980s props you see throughout the film.

As a member of the Local 209 union, which represents entertainment industry members in Ohio and Northern Kentucky, Prunty is on a list of local crewmembers that studios can tap when making films. He pays $1,500 in dues, which he says “pays off tenfold.”

Studios actually prefer to use local talent, Gonchor says. It’s cheaper. But it’s not always possible.

“When Cherry and Judas and the Black Messiah filmed in Cleveland at the same time, there was nobody left to hire in the area,” Prunty says. “It’s not like there are people sitting around. If there’s a movie, there’s work for you. I guarantee it.”

The Russo Brothers Assemble: Inside AGBO, Their $1 Billion Studio, and When They Might Return to Marvel

ART STREIBER FOR VARIETY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Variety | Adam B. Vary
November 2, 2022

Ever since Joe and Anthony Russo released “Avengers: Endgame,” in 2019, the sibling directors have been asked over and over if they would ever work again with Marvel Studios. Each time, they’ve tried to politely deflect — “We’re always talking; we’d need to see what would work” — even though, as Joe put it to Variety in early October, they’ve known the truth for years. “We won’t be ready to do anything with Marvel until the end of the decade,” he says.

Instead, the Russos have dedicated themselves to assembling their own creative cosmos with AGBO, the independent, artist-friendly studio they launched in 2017 with producing partner Mike Larocca. Their “Endgame”-sized ambition is no less than to help lead the industry into the future of entertainment, which is why the Russos have been selected as Variety’s Showmen of the Year.