NEW York is a star again. Film making in the city is at a post-September 11 peak. Crews made 245 movies in New York last year, a 36-percent increase from 2002, said film commissioner Katherine Oliver.
Aggressive marketing and tax incentives are driving the recovery, with an added boost from the US dollar's decline, she said.
"I really wanted to do a film here very much, but you have to crunch the numbers," said Richard Ledes, director of "The Caller," which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. He said tax credits and the exchange rate made New York US$500,000 cheaper than Canada in his US$5 million budget.
Movies and television shows made in New York contribute US$5 billion a year to the city economy and employ 100,000 people, according to Boston Consulting Group, which the mayor's office hired to assess the industry's impact.
The climate has turned around since 2002, when a made-for-TV movie about former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was shot in Montreal, said Oliver, who was an executive with Bloomberg LP, majority owner of Bloomberg News, before joining the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the company's founder and majority owner.
Film makers are winning entry to previously inaccessible locales, she said. Brooklyn Bridge traffic was diverted for 10 nights during the filming of "Stay." Sydney Pollack got permission to shoot "The Interpreter" at the United Nations, which had never before permitted filming.
Current projects
Movies being made on the streets of New York include "The Taking of Pelham 123," a remake starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta; "Julia & Julia," directed by Nora Ephron; and "New York, I Love You," an anthology.
"I've never seen so much shooting going on at one time," said Adam Spielberg, a producer and head of development at New York-based Gigantic Pictures LLC. "I understand the complaint that New York has become a back lot."
Fans of "Sex and the City," the TV show turned into a movie opening on May 30, flocked to watch Sarah Jessica Parker and her co-stars acting at the Four Seasons Hotel and Bryant Park. Production was done at Silvercup Studios, Queens, where the TV version was made for Time Warner Inc's HBO.
"The 'Sex and the City' TV series was one of the best commercials we could have had," said Kimberly Spell, a spokeswoman for NYC & Co, the city's tourism agency. "The city itself is another character."
Tax advantage
New York reduces film makers' tax liability by 5 percent of what is spent there. Governor David Paterson sweetened the pot last month, increasing the state tax credit to 30 percent from 10 percent.
"We were just flooded by people coming to talk to us" after the change, said Pat Swinney Kaufman, executive director of the Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development.
New York may be too favorable to television, according to the Los Angeles crew of the comedy "Ugly Betty." Production of the show is being moved to New York, Walt Disney Co's ABC Studios said yesterday.
More than 300 crew members put a full-page ad in Variety last week, warning California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other politicians that the loss of movie and television jobs to states offering incentives is a threat to the state's economy.
"The texture of the city is what makes it so great to film here," said Susan Seidelman, who directed "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "She-Devil" in New York.
City's downside
Directors run into drawbacks in the city as well. "It's a lot noisier," Seidelman said. She had to stop filming "Cookie" in Chinatown because firecrackers drowned out the dialogue. Seidelman said movies like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" made her want to move to New York.
"That's what's great about New York films," she said. "They're like little sightseeing tours of New York City."