Filmmaker: NC needs new sound stages to compete
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina must start planning immediately to spend money on a dozen new sound stages from the coast to the mountains or risk losing its entertainment industry, a Hollywood film producer said Wednesday.
"We need a competitive and well-thought-out plan implemented within 12 months," said Jordan Kerner, dean of filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts. "I think if we go beyond that, we're in serious danger of being forgotten."
Kerner was meeting with House Speaker Joe Hackney to discuss his plans, which also include an increase in a film tax credit from 15 to 25 percent. He said he has discussed his ideas with Senate leader Marc Basnight and Sen. Linda Garrou, a chief budget-writer.
Spokesmen for Hackney and Basnight did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Kerner's proposal calls for eight sound stages in the Piedmont between Winston-Salem and Greensboro; two in western North Carolina; and two stages in Wilmington, where EUE Screen Gems already has nine sound stages.
To lobby for his plan, Kerner hit on a sore spot with North Carolina film advocates - that "Cold Mountain" was filmed in Europe even though it was a North Carolina story written by a North Carolina author.
"Anthony Minghella had to film 'Cold Mountain' in Romania," Kerner said of the 2003 movie based on the novel by Charles Frazier. "Somebody should be fired over that. He desperately wanted to film in the Blue Ridge mountains."
And Wilmington needs larger stages to attract blockbuster, $100 million to $200 million movies, "which is the kind of movie we're not getting right now," said Kerner, a Hollywood film producer whose credits include "Charlotte's Web" and "Fried Green Tomatoes."
Kerner suggested that North Carolina use state construction funds or a construction bond to build the stages.
Other states offer similar incentives. Louisiana has an incentive, which ends Jan. 1, 2009, for buildings that support the entertainment industry. Last month, Massachusetts legislators were considering a credit to studio developers to attract a sound stage.
Among the movies filmed all or partially in North Carolina in recent years are George Clooney's "Leatherheads" and Will Ferrell's "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." The television series "Dawson's Creek" was filmed in Wilmington, followed by "One Tree Hill," now filming its sixth season.
The state once billed itself as ranking third in film revenues behind California and New York. But when the N.C. Film Office released the 2007 revenues on Monday - $160 million, a 61 percent increase from 2006 - it didn't say where the state ranked.
North Carolina can return to the No. 3 spot because studios are ready to film in the state, with the right incentives and infrastructure, Kerner said. Most producers are like himself, he said, "guys in their 50s who remember North Carolina as a jewel of production after California or New York. But it's being forgotten. We have to answer that."
