Gov. Bentley Wants Alabama Film Industry to Pick Up
With all of the excitement surrounding the movie Selma, Governor Robert Bentley says he wants more movies to film in Alabama. The state just recently started giving incentives for films to shoot here so will Alabama’s film industry start picking up?
Selma was released nationwide on Friday and because the movie was set and shot in parts of Alabama, all eyes are on our state. Governor Robert Bentley says he wants more film studios to choose Alabama as a backdrop.
“We appreciate Paramount Pictures for coming and actually filming this film in the state of Alabama, not going to some other state,” he said. “There are a lot of Alabama stories that are told in other states.”
Movies like Forest Gump and Sweet Home Alabama were set in Alabama but were filmed elsewhere. But that was before Alabama started enticing production companies.
“We want them to come to Alabama and so we have a lot of incentives that are in place,” Bentley explained.
As of 2010, Alabama offers a 25 percent rebate to production companies that film in Alabama but they must spend between 500 thousand dollars and 20 million dollars on the project. That means, there won’t be any large budget films shooting here, think Hunger games. But Alabama’s Director of Tourism says he believes our policy is smart.
“Some states are trying to put too much money into these things and I think they are being too generous with incentives,” he said. “Those things are not sustainable. But Alabama has had a very well thought out plan.”
Some say they believe filming in Alabama would be more convenient for film studios.
“If you want to film in New York or California somewhere, you’re talking about an extra couple hundred thousand people probably even a million people that you have to block roadways and control traffic and all that stuff,” Montgomery resident Winfred Hawkins said.
“There were 8000 jobs that were created because of the films that have taken place over the last year I think, so we want more films to come to this state,” Bentley said.
The Alabama film industry is biggest in Mobile, where more than 15 movies were made this past year. The Alabama Film Office tells us they believe it’s because the coast is attractive to film studios.
