Tony Armer has been appointed the new head of the St Petersburg-Clearwater Film Commission in western Florida. Armer founded the city’s annual Sunscreen Film Festival in 2005 and is also an accomplished filmmaker, film professor and business executive.
Producer Dean Devlin has advocated changes to the filming incentive programme in Oregon. Best known for his 90s movie hits Independence Day and Stargate, Devlin has also filmed extensively in Oregon for long-running crime drama Leverage and adventure series The Librarian.
Proposed changes for North Carolina’s filming incentive programme could undermine the state’s filmmaking appeal, production professionals have warned. Governor Pat McCrory has set out plans that could hinder the state’s ability to attract features on the scale of Iron Man 3.
Jake Gyllenhaal will film boxing drama Southpaw on location in Pennsylvania with director Antoine Fuqua. Pennsylvania is a popular movie location partly because of its competitive 25% filming tax credit and the state recently hosted Russell Crowe’s new drama Fathers and Daughters.
Florida’s production industry faces an uncertain future as authorities have failed to boost its formal filming incentive. The state offers a base filming tax credit of 20%, but a lack of available cash in the fund means Florida is struggling to attract another long-running production like Burn Notice.
Bollywood star Anil Kapoor and filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt have called for better filming incentives in Florida. The pair were in Tampa for the 15th International Indian Film Academy Awards - informally known as the Bollywood Oscars - which were held in America for the first time.
KZK Productions is filming a new drama series in the Florida Keys for Netflix. The currently untitled series will be a drama exploring the impact on a local family when the ‘black sheep’ oldest brother returns home. Burn Notice was the last high-profile drama to film in the state.
Matt Miller spent five years with the Association of National Advertisers before joining the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). He set to work developing the day-to-day structure and this April will mark his twentieth year with the organisation as President and CEO.