By John Schreier, Omaha World-Herald

Omaha World-Herald


Published Friday February 25, 2011
Payne: ‘Action!' on incentives

By John Schreier
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Omaha native and Academy Award winner Alexander Payne wanted to film “Cedar Rapids,” a movie he helped produce, in Iowa, naturally.

The comedy about an insurance convention has earned good reviews, including from the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine.

“But Iowa pulled its tax incentives,” Payne said. “We moved to Michigan.”

The filmmaker, who won an Oscar for best screenplay for “Sideways” in 2005, supports an effort by Lincoln State Sen. Colby Coash to offer financial incentives to companies that make movies in Nebraska.

Payne said he would be unable to attend Friday afternoon's hearing on Legislative Bill 99, so he wrote a letter in support of the bill to Coash.

Nebraska is one of just six states offering no tax breaks to companies that film in their states and hire local talent. Nebraska, Hawaii, Washington and Wyoming all are considering creating tax credits, while at the same time some states are re-evaluating their programs in light of budget deficits.

Iowa suspended its program in late 2009 after an owner of a Minneapolis company was charged with falsifying records in order to inflate incentive payments. The trial of Wendy Weiner Runge, who pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree theft, first-degree fraudulent practices and ongoing criminal conduct, is under way in Des Moines.

Payne said Michigan's generous incentive program — which offers tax credits of up to 42 percent on expenditures — was a “godsend” for the movie.

“If they want to have any filmmaking there – and filmmaking is an industry where they drop a lot of money — they need to do this,” Payne said of the Nebraska lawmakers.

Critics of such incentive programs include Gov. Dave Heineman, who has said that Nebraskans deserve tax cuts before out-of-state movie directors. Studies are inconclusive on the benefits of such programs.

Similar bills have failed to move beyond first-round approval in the last three years.

LB 99 would offer incentives to movie production companies that spend $1 million in Nebraska, hire at least 10 Nebraskans and film part of the movies here.

Friday's hearing likely will lack the megawatt star power that is lobbying Hawaii. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Dan Aykroyd probably won't fly to Lincoln to testify.

Omaha actor John Beasley, who has appeared in a number of feature films and TV series, said he had planned to attend the hearing but was called away unexpectedly for a project in Atlanta.

Beasley is one of three people developing a movie about the life of Marlin Briscoe, an Omaha native and the first black starting quarterback in the NFL. The film about “one of our own” is an example of movies that could be made in Omaha and in Nebraska, Beasley said.

“It's good to shoot at home,” he said. “The tax credit would bring a lot of money into the area.”

Along with employing local actors and support personnel, movie companies hire caterers, rent lights and other equipment and just generally spend money, Beasley said.

“Nebraska is missing out on a lot. There are a lot of good, young filmmakers.”

Payne said tax incentives will not only help small-budget movies but will keep big-time films like “Up in the Air” from flying away.

The Oscar-winning film was set in Omaha, but the cast and crew were in Omaha for only two days. Most scenes were shot in other cities, including St. Louis and Miami, where tax incentives made it cheaper to film.

“I want to support my state,” Payne said. “Sometimes, you hear, ‘Why should we help Hollywood people?' We're helping our state and homegrown filmmakers who can tell the story of our state.”

Payne said he recently was flying from Omaha to Denver when a flight attendant recognized him.

“She and another flight attendant put their names and numbers on a Frontier Airlines napkin. It wasn't anything sleazy. They said, ‘Put us in your next movie as extras,'” he said.

Payne said if all goes as planned, he'll start filming his next movie in September or October. He said he always wants to return home to work, but the question of incentives makes that uncertain.

Even for his next project, he said, whose early, tentative title is “Nebraska.”