From Joe Vardon at The Columbus Dispatch

Tax credits bringing Hollywood back to Ohio

Nickelodeon star in Paramount project to shoot in Cleveland
Saturday, April 23, 2011 03:06 AM
By Joe Vardon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

More movie cameras will roll in Cleveland this summer, thanks to a tax credit offered through the Ohio Film Office.

And the Ohio Film Office will roll on as well, regardless of what happens to its umbrella organization, the Ohio Department of Development.

Yesterday, the Department of Development announced that an unnamed Paramount Pictures film starring Nickelodeon's Victoria Justice will shoot in Cleveland beginning this spring, with the help of a $4.7million tax credit.

The credit, awarded under the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit program facilitated by the Film Office, already has drawn Unstoppable, starring Denzel Washington, and snagged The Avengers for Cleveland this summer.
Story continues below
Advertisement

Gov. John Kasich's two-year budget proposal appropriates $10 million a year for the tax credit in 2012 and 2013. Development officials said yesterday that it remains to be determined where the Film Office will be once JobsOhio - the governor's privatized development entity that will take over many functions of the state's Development Department - is up and running.

But their rhetoric and actions suggest that the Film Office and the tax credit itself will live on.

"This is the third major motion picture to be filmed in Ohio since the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit began last year," Development Director James Leftwich said in a statement. "We have seen Unstoppable hit theaters, secured The Avengers to shoot in Cleveland, and now Paramount has committed to shooting in Ohio. These are all important indicators the tax credit is doing what it is designed to do: grow Ohio's film industry."

The Department of Development said Unstoppable received a $3.8million tax credit and The Avengers, starring Robert Downey Jr., will get an $8.1million credit.

To receive the tax credit, production companies must show reviewable progress to the Film Office within 90 days of approval for the tax credit. Tax credits are awarded upon the completion of production.

About $2.8million of the $30million appropriated for 2010 and 2011 is still available under the program. Credits are awarded up to 35 percent for Ohio cast and crew members' wages and up to 25 percent for other expenditures.

The unnamed Paramount flick, which will also shoot in other areas of Ohio, will be directed by The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz.

The Department of Development said the plot centers on a sarcastic teenage girl who is forced to take her little brother trick-or-treating and then loses him and must find him before their mother finds out.

The film, scheduled to be released in October 2012, is expected to employ about 545 Ohioans as part of the production crew and extras.

Development officials are continuing to determine which functions should be incorporated into JobsOhio and which should remain under the state, even though a lawsuit was filed with the Ohio Supreme Court this week, claiming that several aspects of JobsOhio are unconstitutional.