Film Producers Win Important Battle Here!!!

The following is from today's Des Moines Register, by Lee Rood...
Film producers can keep data secret

By LEE ROOD • lrood@dmreg.com • May 22, 2010


A group of 11 film producers who fought to prevent the state from releasing financial information about movies made in Iowa won a civil lawsuit Friday in Polk County District Court.

The case sought to resolve whether a state agency can release information to the public that it previously indicated could be kept confidential.

The producers filed the lawsuit in the wake of an open-records request by The Des Moines Register last fall to Iowa's Department of Economic Development. Judge Artis Reis decided the producers would suffer "incalculable" financial harm if the state released budget forms completed by filmmakers that it previously indicated could be kept confidential.

"How can the state of Iowa expect to attract new businesses if the businesses cannot rely on the state's word to keep confidential information which, if released, could harm the businesses?" Reis wrote in her ruling. "Public curiosity cannot override the public interest in continuing economic development for the state."

The Film, Television and Video Project Promotion Program has been suspended until 2013 after allegations of widespread mismanagement and abuse of state tax credits by filmmakers. A criminal probe begun last year is ongoing.

IDED wanted to release the summary budget forms as a compromise to the Register's request for detailed information about expenses claimed by filmmakers seeking tax credits. The summary forms did not include individual filmmaking expenditures, but they did indicate generally how much moviemakers spent on different categories, such as talent, camera work and locations.

Filmmakers could request to keep that information confidential on the form.

Jonathan Wilson and Scott Brennan, attorneys for the film companies, argued successfully that their clients were guaranteed "by contract and by statute" that certain expenses and investor information would be kept secret.

State attorneys for the Iowa Department of Economic Development and the Register, which joined in the suit, argued the records were already public and that the serious problems surrounding the taxpayer-backed program demanded transparency.

"It is outrageous the state can keep this information secret," Register Editor Carolyn Washburn said. "Such secrecy gives cover to people who want to take advantage of Iowa taxpayers. That does not assure the good, clean government Iowans like to stand for."

Not all producers who made movies in Iowa during the heyday of the best-in-the-nation incentive program in 2008 and 2009 objected to release of the financial information.

The release of forms tied to those producers' films earlier this year led the Register to seek expert analysis of costs claimed. The newspaper published an investigative report in April using that information that identified additional questionable spending not previously identified by state investigators.

Jeffrey Thompson, an assistant attorney general who argued the state's case on behalf of IDED, alleged during a court hearing that some filmmakers were seeking to shield the information from public scrutiny because it was embarrassing or incriminating.

One of the producers involved in filing the suit was Polynation Pictures. Two principals in that company, owner Wendy Weiner Runge and partner Mathias Saunders, have been charged with first-degree theft for allegedly inflating filmmaking expenditures used to obtain state tax credits to help make the film "The Scientist."

Two other companies are led in part by Kip Konwiser, producer of the unmade movie "Blackbeard." Konwiser's proposed budget for that movie quadrupled from about $5 million to $20 million while he was gearing up for filming last year in Des Moines.

He and fired film chief Tom Wheeler agreed to the increases without the knowledge or approval of state economic development board members, or union workers whose pay hinged on the size of the movie, the Register found.

As part of her ruling, Reis awarded the producers costs and attorney fees.
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Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said Friday: "We are considering our options about next steps to take in this situation."