Record Year for Illinois Film?

BY Ed M. Koziarski

2007 looks like a year for the record books as far as the Illinois film industry is concerned. Riding the impact of the 2006 expanded Film Tax Credit and the massive Dark Knight shoot, motion picture production reached an all-time high, with strong showings in television and commercial production as well.

“From a revenue standpoint it’s going to be way up,” said Chicago Film Office director Rich Moskal. While the Illinois Film Office hasn’t released 2007 revenue totals yet, Moskal speculated that it would prove to be “one of the biggest years we’ve had,” even discounting the impact of The Dark Knight. ReelChicago.com estimated production spending for ’07 at an all-time high $175 million, citing unattributed sources.

“We have every expectation that 2007 will be a history-making year for the film industry in Illinois as far as setting records and numbers,” said Ashley Cross, a spokesperson for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the IFO’s parent agency. Cross said it would be several weeks before the state completed its audit and released final numbers.

Last year the IFO estimated a total of $80 million in in-state production spending, split almost evenly between film/tv and commercials, down from $90 million in 2005.

A total of 469 productions shot for 1,381 total days in 2007, according to Chicago Film Office statistics, which track permitted days on Chicago city streets, not including suburban, downstate, or unpermitted interior shooting. There were 670 total film and TV shoot days in 2007, up from 558 in 2006.

“There was an abundance of production of all different budget sizes and lengths of shooting,” Moskal said, “There were a good many moderate-sized productions like The Merry Gentlemen, Of Boys and Men, and Witless Protection.” Nine studio films shot within the city for 174 days in 2007, up from eight projects shooting just 46 studio days in ’06 and the biggest growth area for the year.

The Dark Knight, widely cited as the biggest shoot ever in Chicago, was predictably the leader in shoot days at 66, and was expected to blow away records for spending by a single production. The Dark Knight hired 250 union performers, according to AFTRA/SAG assistant executive director Kit Woods, as well as 350 local crew and 6,000 extras.

Timur Bekmambetov’s Universal comic book adaptation Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman, shot 30 permitted days between May and September.

Gary Fleder’s Universal sports drama The Express, starring Dennis Quaid, Clancy Brown and Rob Brown, shot 29 days in Chicago plus Evanston, Berwyn, Blue Island and Union throughout the spring.

The Vince Vaughn Christmas comedy Fred Claus, now in theatres, directed by David Dobkin for Warner Bros., filmed 24 days in January, plus a few days in ’06.

DreamWorks’ thriller Eagle Eye, Shia LaBeouf, Rosario Dawson and Michelle Monaghan, shot 10 days in November.

Larry the Cable Guy vehicle Witless Protection, for Lionsgate, filmed four days in the city, rounding the rest of its June shoot with several weeks of suburban and downstate production. Chicago native Charles Carner directed.

Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns for Lionsgate, starring Perry and Angela Bassett, shot four days in July.

Rounding out the studio shoots was four days on New Line’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, from Evanstonian Audrey Niffenegger’s book and set here but filmed principally in Toronto. Also from New Line: Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which shot for two days.

Outside the city, The Lucky Ones, formerly The Return, filmed throughout the suburbs and downstate in May and June. Neil Burger’s $15 million Lionsgate production follows three Iraq veterans (Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Pe-a) on leave after being injured in the war.

Independent feature production enjoyed healthy growth, with several decent-sized indies and a number of smaller shoots. Eighteen independent films shot for 184 permitted days, up from 17 productions and 141 days in ’06.

Frank Vincent starred in Chicago Overcoat, a $1 million production from local Beverly Ridge Pictures, directed by Brian Caunter and featuring Mike Starr, Kathrine Narducci, Stacy Keach and Armand Assante, which shot a whopping 48 days.

Milburn Anderson’s $5 million The Root of All Evil (formerly Cach?), starring Sean Bean (The Fellowship of the Ring) and Starr, produced by local Naveen Chathappuran, shot for 36 days in Chicago.

Michael Keaton’s Sundance-bound directorial debut The Merry Gentleman, starring Keaton as a suicidal hitman with Kelly MacDonald, an estimated $5 million production produced by Steven A. Jones, Tom Bastounes and Christina Varotsis, shot 24 days in March and April.

Carl Seaton’s under-$1 million Of Boys and Men, starring Robert Townsend, Angela Bassett and Faizon Love, shot 18 days in April.

Lori Petty’s The Poker House shot four permitted days but filmed for several weeks in Lemont, Chicago, and Lockport. Bokeem Woodbine, David Allen Grier, Chloe Moretz and Clark Peters star.

SPEAK Productions’ $300,000 musical Were The World Mine, a loose adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed throughout June, with 12 permitted shoot days.

Mark Selz’ $250,000 horror pic Satanic Panic shot in Northern Illinois throughout the summer.

Split Pillow’s The Disappearance of Daniel Dodger shot 12 permitted days. Split Pillow shot three other features: The Christians, Petersburg, and Eye of the Sandman.

Other independent productions: William Pierce’s Tactical, Mark Vadik’s Hag, Minji Kang’s Actually Adieu My Love, Daniel J. Pico’s Farewell Darkness, Gerard Jamroz’ Lofty Intentions, Filmontage Productions’ Seven Soles, Simple Scede’s Squeal, Dalia Tapia’s Silent Shame, Summit Entertainment’s Sex Drive, Terry Kinney’s Diminished Capacity, Wishbox Media’s Diacritical, Order 66’s My Friends Told Me About You, Heaven Productions’ Make It Happen, and Hollywood East’s Jerry For President.

Sixty-three television projects shot for 313 days in 2007, compared to 60 projects shooting 371 days in 2006. Oprah Winfrey had two of the biggest TV shoots with her daytime talk show and the reality show “The Big Give,” both for ABC.

BET was the next biggest TV player. The cabler’s series “College Hill: Interns” shot 32 days in July and August. Bravo’s “The Top Chef” shot 19 days throughout the fall.

Three series pilots offered hope of bringing coveted episodic production back to Chicago in the coming year.

Patrick Swayze plays an FBI investigator in A&E’s “The Beast,” which shot 14 days in December. Timothy Hutton leads a team of high-tech thieves in TNT’s “Leverage,” which lensed 14 days in October. Anne Archer and Beau Bridges star in the legal drama “Family Practice” for Lifetime, which filmed 14 days in September-October.

Other significant TV shoots included “ER,” The History Channel’s “Cities of the Underworld,” The Travel Channel’s “America the Wright Way,” Ch. and Luminar’s “Mexico, One Plate at a Time,” HGTV’s “What You Get For the Money,” “National Open House,” and “Hidden Potential,” Warner Music Group’s Chicago

Academy for the Arts Pilot, and A&E’s “My Boys.”

Eighty-two commercials shot for 124 days, compared to 64 commercials shooting 120 days in ’06. Like shoot days, commercial revenues were expected to be flat after major growth in ’06. There were 296 Web, still photo and other projects that shot for 585 days in ’07.

“The tax credit played the most significant role in capturing projects that would have gone to other states or Canada,” Moskal said. “Particularly for those medium-budget pictures like Witless Protection or maybe even The Express, if it were not for the incentive, Chicago would not have been taken seriously.”

Just as Illinois’ tax credit expired (see sidebar p. 4), Wisconsin’s new 25 percent film tax credit went into effect, making that state one of the most aggressive in luring production.

Michael Mann’s 30’s crime drama Public Enemies for Universal Pictures, starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, will split its two and a half month spring shoot between Illinois and Wisconsin, a choice that Moskal attributes to a combination of script considerations and Wisconsin’s tax credit.

“They were looking for rural landscapes, and my guess is that some of those landscapes could also be found in Illinois,” Moskal said. “Producers have to weigh carefully the fact that the biggest incentive may not be the most financially sound decision if there isn’t as much of a production infrastructure. That’s an issue in South Carolina, where despite a 30 percent credit, a lot of the benefit gets chewed up in the additional cost of bringing in crew from other states. Part of what makes the Wisconsin incentive attractive is its proximity to Chicago. Is it going to poach work from Chicago? I couldn’t tell you for sure, but I would hope they would still take advantage of Chicago cast and crew and vendors.”

2008 is starting off well, though the writers’ (and possibly actors’ and directors’) strike will likely stall production later in the spring.

George Tillman and Bob Teitel begin production on the family drama Humboldt Park for Overture Films in February, directed by Alfredo De Vila (Adrift In Manhattan) and rumored attachments of John Leguizamo and Freddy Rodriguez.

Steven Polk directs Corbin Bernsen and local Chelcie Ross, who co-starred in Major League, in Irish Peanut Productions’ drama The Baggage, scheduled to begin shooting at the end of January.

The Horseman, Peter Akerlund’s thriller for Lionsgate starring Dennis Quaid, Ziyi Zhang and Peter Stormare, did a week of reshoots in January.

David S. Goyer’s untitled thriller, for Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes and Rogue Pictures, is slated to start shooting in March.

Moskal couldn’t confirm reports that Darnell Martin’s Cadillac Records for Universal, starring Matt Dillon as blues maven Leonard Chess and featuring Jeffrey Wright, would begin shooting shortly. He speculated that script rewrites frozen by the writers’ strike could be stalling the production.