The Detroit film Industry?!?

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:15 pm

It is confirmed, Warner Brothers bought the Ford-Wixom plant and is turning it into a Film Studio/lot.

Michigan has had a number of films shot here in the past year, Drew Barrymore, Clint Eastwood, Sigourney Weaver (among others) have all been here shooting their current movies.

This appears to be the reality the Michigan economy has hoped for.

Anyone coming to Michigan?

mikeyc · Post by **mikeyc** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 12:51 pm

There are some smaller film companies moving to the West side too (mostly B movies and what not so far). Samuel L Jackson is supposedly doing a flick in Grand Rapids, and someone's moving an Indie studio to Muskegon.

Good thing. We need all the jobs we can get in Michigan.

I hope WB does Wixom right-- maybe they'll clean up Wixom's water system. Worst-tasting water in the country. Seriously. I went to Arby's there once and had a water from the pop fountain. I thought my mouth was bleeding. It was as if the water ran through plumbing made from scraps of Ford Pinto exhaust pipes. Blechh.

Aj · Post by Aj » Fri Sep 19, 2008 2:33 pm

Where did you hear this? This has been mentioned as a possibility in the papers around here (I'm in Michigan) since August, but I can't find any mention of it being a done deal. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually happens though. There are Hollywood projects popping up all over the place around here.

Would be fantastic news, if it goes through.

Aj

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:02 pm

Aj wrote:Where did you hear this? This has been mentioned as a possibility in the papers around here (I'm in Michigan) since August, but I can't find any mention of it being a done deal. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually happens though. There are Hollywood projects popping up all over the place around here.

Would be fantastic news, if it goes through.

Aj

Spoke with a Ford employee who has been dispatched by Ford to begin cleaning it up for the WB takeover. It happened.

Aj · Post by Aj » Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:08 pm

Awesome. Inside information! I've been calling my friends here.... it's fun; no one else has heard about it yet because it's not in the news.

Michigan = Hollywood Midwest, in a few years? Hmm, now I don't have to move to the coast!

Aj

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:14 pm

Will Disney follow? Or will it be Columbia/Sony or will it be Paramount?

I spoke with a Post-house in Santa Monica last week that is building a satellite operation here. I don't know if the guy who runs it is from here or has even deeper inside information.

Certainly, with the automotive industry tanking here, something has to replace it.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:40 pm

This sounds like Wilmington, NC fifteen years ago, which is now a ghost town for the film industry, despite this state being one of the best markets for property values in the US.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Beingbing · Post by **Beingbing** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:57 pm

Awesome. Hopefully I'll get a job holding a boom for 20 an hour.

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:10 am

cgarges wrote:This sounds like Wilmington, NC fifteen years ago, which is now a ghost town for the film industry, despite this state being one of the best markets for property values in the US.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

I just talked to a friend of mine in North Carolina that does voiceover. An L.A. transplant. I mentioned this move to him and told me about that battle between North Carolina and South Carolina and the film industry.

What the post-production facilities like down there? Detroit has a half dozen top-notch facilities that have subsisted on the automotive industry for years.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:13 am

Like any well-populated American city, there are plenty of decent audio post facilities that thrive on radio advertising and audio for cable networks and whatnot in Charlotte and Raleigh. As far as film goes, there's a bit of that, too, but Wilmington (on the coast) became a major player about fifteen years ago. There was a good bit of major motion picture stuff filmed there as well as various television stuff (Dawson's Creek was shot in Wilmington). Both Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson had houses there for a while. (Hopper bought a theatre downtown at one point.) The industry thrived there for several years, but has really, really left the film community there in bad shape with a large majority of non-LA and NY work moving to Canada.

It will probably be good for the area for a while, but as soon as they find somewhere cheaper than Detroit, it will go away. I wouldn't expect Detroit to take over Hollywood or anything. It's too cold there.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:30 pm

cgarges wrote:It will probably be good for the area for a while, but as soon as they find somewhere cheaper than Detroit, it will go away. I wouldn't expect Detroit to take over Hollywood or anything. It's too cold there.

A studio is in-doors.

The fact that Warner Brothers would buy a large property and build a studio/lot/soundstage(s) is a bigger commitment than going somewhere to shoot a movie.

I don't see the correlation.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:36 pm

I was half-way kidding about the cold part.

I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure that Warner did the same thing in Wilmington. (Maybe it wasn't Warner.) Several companies saw that as an awesome thing and built sound stages, many of which have closed down in the last few years. I'll see if I can find out more details, but it will be next week before I'll be able to look into it further.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

channelcat · Post by **channelcat** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:09 am

My brother-in-law, who's a video editor (mostly auto industry and Six Flags commercials) in Farmington Hills, mentioned this a few months ago. He said his company was bringing in quite a bit of new equipment specifically for editing movies. I hope it works out, because according to him the auto industry commercials aren't paying the bills anymore.

Stu

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:02 pm

The Wachowskis (the Matrix guys) just started building a big audio/video post house on the north side of Chicago. We'll see what that does.

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:26 am

channelcat wrote:My brother-in-law, who's a video editor (mostly auto industry and Six Flags commercials) in Farmington Hills, mentioned this a few months ago. He said his company was bringing in quite a bit of new equipment specifically for editing movies. I hope it works out, because according to him the auto industry commercials aren't paying the bills anymore.

Stu

We're gonna be down to the 'Big 2' pretty quick...

In a shocking ad for Lincoln Mercury, I heard a track by Tones on Tail called 'Go' last night.

Holy crap.

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The Detroit film Industry?!?

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