News and Press Releases

The corporate leadership group Business Leaders for Michigan said Tuesday that it has received a $200,000 federal grant to help launch its Detroit Creative Corridor Center.

The center is to serve as a hub for connecting creative businesses such as advertising and media firms and Web designers with business programs and services from around the region.

Curtains up. Take a bow, Detroit. Encore, encore. The city's creative industries -- theater, film, dance, music, art, design -- are more than holding their own in a rapidly changing regional economy: they are taking a leadership role. One institution helping to move things along is Wayne State University's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts Department.

Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, was largely filmed in Michigan, as the US state tries to diversify its economy away from Detroit's recession-hit car industry.

The city is now requiring a film permit, application and fees for filming in the city in an effort to simplify the process and attract more filming.

The City Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday to accept the documents that are considered industry standards.

As the writer, producer and director of "Five.K.One", www.fivekone.com, Armstrong is capturing the attention of many of Hollywood's key players.

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Director Sultan Sharrief arrives at Sundance with “Bilal’s Stand.” The film is the story of “Bilal, an upright black Muslim teen who works at his family’s taxi stand in Detroit.

Indie producer XYZ Films has tapped Ric Roman Waugh ("Felon") to direct action thriller "Land of the Free," set in Detroit against the collapsing auto industry.

Waugh will also produce alongside XYZ Films' Nick Spicer, Nate Bolotin, and Aram Tertzakian.

The Detroit Windsor International Film Festival will hold the second installment of its Encore Program at 7 p.m. Feb. 4 at Alvin’s bar near Wayne State.

Back in the summer of 2008, "Youth in Revolt" was one of two high-profile Hollywood features to take advantage of Michigan's generous tax incentives for making movies in the state.

"I always feel like after I've worked on a movie I've learned something, because every movie is a different set of people and a different experience," he says. "The more I work, the more I learn, but I couldn't tell you what."

The Motor City is to be the setting for a new ABC pilot called "187 Detroit."

Kevin Smith has confirmed plans to direct a movie based on the Warren Zevon song 'Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)', reports The Playlist.

"I pick apart movies, mine, anybody's," he says during a recent visit to his hometown of Birmingham. "I love movies. If I go to movies with people, they generally don't go with me again. 'Tim, you talked all the way through that.' 'But did you see that? That can't happen. That doesn't work. There was a different car that came in.' I'm a continuity freak."

The 90-minute film by Aaron Woolf titled “Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City” debuts nationally Feb. 8 on PBS. Narrated by Miles O’Brien, it asks whether it is time to fundamentally change the way Americans travel.

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to the wonderful people of Detroit for opening your city to us while filming "Red Dawn" for the past several months.

I was less than thrilled when I heard we would be shooting "Red Dawn" in Detroit as result of Michigan's film incentive program, and I couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of all the bad press that I have read and heard about, I found a fantastic, if somewhat challenged, city that is full of generous and kind people who have a great work ethic and an ingenuity to make more out of less.

Leading man Thomas Jane, who plays down-on-his-luck Metro Detroit high school teacher Ray Drecker in the HBO series "Hung," got a Golden Globe nomination today for the role.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- The recession-era tale "Up in the Air" led Golden Globe film contenders Tuesday with six nominations, among them best drama and acting honors for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.

In "Detroit: Our Greatest Generation," filmmaker Keith Famie focuses on Detroit's wartime contributions during the 1940s. The 90-minute movie premieres Sunday at the Fox Theatre, hosted by WJR-AM (760) radio personality Paul W. Smith.

“Bilal’s Stand,” a feature film written and directed by University of Michigan graduate and local filmmaker Sultan Sharrief, has been accepted to the Sundance Film Festival’s Next category. The Next category, new this year at Sundance, “is designed to cordon off space for low- and no-budget filmmaking and is a showcase for eight ‘younger, fresher’ American filmmakers that live and breathe true indie spirit,” stated SFF director John Cooper in The Hollywood Reporter.

Overture Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the thriller "Stone," starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich.

Funny and moving, the film -- which has some interesting connections to metro Detroit -- is being praised for its timeliness.
It's a movie that makes you think about important journeys, and not just the kind you take in a plane. Just ask "Up in the Air" director Jason Reitman, 32, about the many years he spent working on the screenplay inspired by the 2001 novel by Walter Kirn.

A former school that is been being used as a movie house will host a new film festival next year that organizers hope will build on growing enthusiasm for the movie industry in Michigan.
The Detroit Independent Film Festival is seeking short films to be screened March 3-7. The state has been drawing more moviemakers since last year, when tax incentives that are among the nation's most generous took effect.

"Garbage Dreams," about Cairo residents who recycle trash in order to survive, is a highlight of this year's Arab Film Festival. The closing-night film, showing at 8:25 p.m. Saturday, caps this fifth annual festival of Arab-themed films at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.

Michigan's burgeoning film industry has brought more than Hollywood glitz and glamour to Detroit; it's also brought a wave of film industry training programs and "boot camps," to help supply homegrown talent to a growing list of production sets.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — David Schwimmer has a well-earned reputation as a TV star after 10 years playing Dr. Ross Geller on NBC's mega-hit "Friends," although these days he is more focused on what happens behind the camera.

The Livonia-based Stautzenberger Institute has signed a lease to relocate to the Unity Studios development in Allen Park, the city announced Tuesday.

Detroit - A handful of stars from "Days of Our Lives" are in Detroit to do some charity work, make appearances and conduct a talent search that will earn someone a role on the long-running daytime soap.

Nadia Bjorlin, Bryan Dattilo and others visited a Veterans Administration hospital Wednesday. Today, they plan to work at a food bank and decorate floats for the city's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Allen Park - A film and production company started by a former Detroit Piston is leaving Pittsburgh for Allen Park.

WAR Entertainment, founded by former pro basketball player Dale Davis, will relocate to Unity Studios, which is transforming a former Visteon Corp. facility in Allen Park into a movie studio. A groundbreaking ceremony for the $146 million studio was held in August.

TheWindsor International Film Festival is rolling... but not in Windsor.

The Festival, now in its fifth year, is starting out in neighboring Michigan, with two Canadian films -- "Pontypool" and "C'est pas moi, je le jure!" -- screening at the Detroit Film Theatre this weekend. Straying even farther from home, the Festival also presented a screening of "The Necessities of Life" earlier this week at Michigan State University.

If there's one thing Detroit can brag about, it's our quantity (and quality) of good, greasy food.

For his upcoming show in Detroit, the Travel Channel's Adam Richman of "Man v. Food" took on the famous Triple Threat pork sandwich from Slow's Bar BQ and compared the dogs at Lafayette and American Coney Islands.

Michigan legislators last year approved an aggressive measure to woo the film industry to Michigan, enacting a 42 percent special tax rebate, the largest in the country.

"Earth Days": Filmmaker Robert Stone uses interviews and archival footage in a documentary that traces the history of the modern environmental movement from the first postwar rustlings in the 1950s to the publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in 1962 to the first Earth Day celebration in 1970. At the Main Art Theatre, 118 N. Main, Royal Oak.

"Friends” star David Schwimmer will direct Hollywood heavyweights Clive Owen and Catherine Keener in a film that will be doing some shooting in Plymouth over the next few weeks.

“Trust,” Schwimmer’s second directorial effort after 2007’s “Run Fatboy Run,” is a dark drama about a family that unravels when a teenage girl falls prey to an online sexual predator, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Epicenter Studios, the makers of Real Heroes: Firefighter for the Wii, are planning to open an office in Detroit , Michigan, according to a report in Michigan Job Search. The company currently holds court in Las Angeles (or more precisely, Sherman Oaks), California and plans to continue to do business there as well. The starting goal is to open a Detroit-area studio and hire 20 workers beginning next month.

Lights...camera...jobs! The city of Detroit is taking its' cue from Hollywood and luring movie companies to the motor city. Clint Eastwood shot "Gran Torino" there last year. Several other films have been made since, and now MGM is shooting a movie called "Red Dawn" downtown.

A remake of the 1984 thriller "Red Dawn" has begun filming in downtown Detroit complete with gunfire and tanks.

The original film cast a young Patrick Swayze, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey in a scenario where the United States comes under attack from a foreign country. A group of young rebels calling themselves the "Wolverines" fight to take back their homeland.

The Discovery Channel says it likes Detroit's rundown aesthetic -- it makes a good backdrop for its new show "Motor City Motors."

But the stars of that show, Detroit Bros. Custom Cycles founders James and Dave Kaye, say they hope the attention the show brings to Detroit will help clean the city up a bit.

related items Main Art Theatre Landmark Main Art Theatre .I first saw "Stick it in Detroit" at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival in June 2008. I laughed so hard I almost cried. Now, more than a year later, this blue collar made-in-Michigan-for-Michigan-about-Michigan film is finally having its big red carpet premiere at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

Business hasn't been too good lately for the Detroit Bros. Custom Cycles shop. Founders Dave and James Kaye hope the magic of TV may soon help.

The brothers are starring in an upcoming Discovery Channel series called "Motor City Motors" that they hope not only will turn around their struggling business, but also provide a boost to their economically challenged hometown.

Film set locales throughout Michigan are becoming tourist magnets. A police precinct, a back alley and an RV park aren't usually the stuff of prime tourist draws. But Inside Detroit's Maureen Kearns is betting they will take on a whole new appeal when featured on the big screen with stars such as Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank.

Roller derby diehards and grrl-power folks will be pleased to know that Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It! has finally gotten a distributor and a release date: Fox Searchlight will be unleashing it in wide release on October 9th, 2009. Drew Barrymore is also an executive producer; her production company Flower Films is behind the release.

Michigan's year-old film incentives have sparked debate in the state -- but it's sparked activity, as well.
Last week, Compass Film Academy's alumni board presented its 10th annual 24 Hour Film Festival in Grand Rapids, and advisory board member Ralph Winter was one of three judges at the event. Winter, a producer at 20th Century Fox for the past 10 years, has produced more than 25 films, including the "X-Men" trilogy and the upcoming "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

Clint Eastwood is among a cast of Hollywood stars stepping in to save Detroit from ruin as General Motors and Chrysler, once the troubled city's biggest employers, continue their long slide towards the scrap heap.

"The Genesis Code," the latest film to be shot in West Michigan under the Michigan film incentives, is hosting an open call for crew members.

The UK's the Guardian picks up on Detroit's film tax incentives and brings out some numbers. Excerpt:

Thanks to some lucrative tax breaks, Detroit, and much of the State of Michigan, has become the latest backlot of choice for film-makers.

The glitz, glamour and greenbacks of the burgeoning Michigan movie industry are an attractive oasis in a state economy otherwise hemorrhaging jobs.

The Michigan Film Office says filmmakers qualified for $48 million in payments from the state during the first 10 months of an incentive program enacted last year.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) features four terminals that are available for filmmakers. Two of the terminals are completely new -- McNamara and North while the other two terminals are no longer in operation -- Smith and Berry. The airport has been used as the location for ABC's "The Prince of the Motor City" and "Homeland Security". It will be used this week for the new George Clooney film "Up in the Air". The airport is attractive to filmmakers due to the state's 42 percent tax incentive for filmmakers who choose to do their work in Michigan.

There are plans to convert the former Detroit Free Press building into a new film production studio.

The new owners of the building hope to take advantage of the state's tax incentives slated for film, video and TV production in Michigan.

The rising tide of the film industry in Michigan continues with the recent developments of a film studio at Pontiac and Wonderstruck Studios LLC, which will be headquartered at the old MGM Grand Detroit Casino -- right next to the new one. Chris Baum, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing for FilmDetroit.com, stated that the advantages of mainstream films being shot in the state include residents giving the opportunity to work as either volunteers and/or extras as well as to the creation of several job opportunities for those interested in working behind the scenes such as crew.

Plans for a $100 million film production studio in the city are moving forward.

"We’re still working with the studio group and it’s coming along as scheduled," Mayor Gary Burtka said.

The vacant Detroit building formerly used as MGM Grand’s temporary casino will be transformed this year into an $86 million Hollywood-style digital animation and visual effects studio directly employing more than 400 people.

Hello folks, your friendly neighborhood Spider-man is here! Well, he could be, that is. With Michigan's incentives for filmmakers and Michigan being Sam Raimi's home state, there is an increasing possibility that this could become reality.

Michigan may be one step closer to becoming the Hollywood of the Midwest. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved tax credits to a film company and a special effects studio that would bring thousands of jobs to the area.

Michigan continues to make inroads into the motion picture industry as planned production studios in Detroit and Pontiac are expected to bring more than 5,800 jobs to the state. The former MGM Grand temporary casino just outside downtown Detroit will be home to the Detroit Center Studios, Michigan Economic Development Corp. spokesman Mike Shore said Tuesday. About 20 miles northwest of Detroit, Motown Motion Pictures LLC plans to invest about $70 million in a 600,000-square-foot development with nine sound stages in Pontiac. “It makes us a 12-months-a-year film center,” said Chris Baum, senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau and Film Detroit. "It makes us a legitimate contender – the studios on the ground and best incentives in the country."

Clint Eastwood split but Hilary Swank has been shooting in Ann Arbor. Since Michigan unrolled its red carpet to the film industry in April, every actor from Sigourney Weaver to Oscar the Dog has been here, enticed by an array of tax goodies you just can't get in California or anywhere else. Movie producers used to go to Bulgaria for what Michigan is now selling: up to 42 percent tax refunds for costs incurred while making movies in Michigan. And, hey, the big discounts are creating more than buzz.

Software development company Stardock Systems will invest $900,000 in an expansion of its Plymouth, Michigan headquarters that will allow for the development of a new PC title. This expansion is expected to create 53 jobs at the developer and publisher, whose shipped games include the Galactic Civilizations series and Sins of a Solar Empire. The company was founded in 1991 and currently employs over 60 workers.

A former Pontiac auto plant and the defunct MGM Grand Casino will be converted into film production studios that will create 4,000 new direct jobs in Metro Detroit, boosting one of the state's few fast-growing industries. Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced plans for the new studios Tuesday during her State of the State address.

Now, the good news. How making movies in Michigan, will make this area's economic "picture" alot brighter. Granholm announced that Oakland County is the site for a new motion picture studio. As My TV20's Dave Leval reports-- it will not only bring stars to Michigan, but also thousands of jobs. Multimedia Watch The Video There's plenty on the menu at Pontiac's Country Kitchen Restaurant. Regulars wait to sink their teeth into what's cooking, just not as many as there used to be here.

As momentum for Michigan's film industry grows, two groups are vying to have the state's first studio complex.