From The Salt Lake Tribune

Lawmakers very eager to increase state’s film incentive

By Sean P. Means

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated Aug 19, 2010 03:46PM

The Utah Film Commission wants to lure more movie and TV production into the state. That’s why the group made a sales pitch to a legislative interim committee Wednesday to raise the state’s tax incentive for film production from 20 percent to 25 percent.

The surprise was that some legislators, after hearing how much filmmaking adds to the state’s economy, suggested more.

“Why not 30 percent?” asked Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, a member of the interim committee that oversees economic development.

“I wouldn’t hold back — let’s spin this to bigger numbers,” said the committee’s Senate chairman, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, to officials from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the film commission’s parent agency.

The enthusiasm for the motion-picture incentive, which legislators once viewed with suspicion, proves “we’re showing success that translates into jobs,” said Marshall Moore, the film commission’s director.

“If you offer a better incentive, you’ll attract more business,” said John J. Kelly, one of the executive producers of the film “127 Hours,” who took part in a multi- media sales pitch to legislators.

Moore and GOED officials talked up the successes attributed to the 20 percent incentive and tax rebates given to movie productions that spend money in Utah. In the past fiscal year, the state spent almost $11.6 million on incentives, but that expense generated a direct economic impact to the state of nearly $56.3 million — and an estimated overall impact of more than $140 million.

Moore touted two productions that filmed in Utah this summer: Disney’s $200 million science fiction blockbuster “John Carter of Mars,” whose producers spent $21 million shooting around southern Utah, and “127 Hours,” the adventure drama directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle that spent $14 million of its $25 million budget on filming in Moab, Antelope Island and on a Salt Lake City soundstage.