{"id":34,"date":"2025-01-29T16:29:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T16:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/?p=34"},"modified":"2025-02-20T15:56:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T15:56:24","slug":"michigan-on-film-an-endlessly-useful-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"Michigan on film \u2013 an endlessly useful location"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20240518195601im_\/https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/cinema-2502213__340.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>An upper Midwestern state has gone to great lengths to make itself a sought-after movie location \u2014 and the entertainment industry is taking notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A legislative package recently passed by the Michigan legislature provides incentives to lure filmmakers to Wolverine State. And with broad tax breaks, cash rebates, and a low-interest loan program among the new Michigan film production benefits offered by this sixteen-account initiative, aspiring and established filmmakers may find Michigan\u2019s offer hard to refuse. The bill has already attracted attention in Variety, a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20240518195601\/https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/the-books-thief-a-new-film-report\/\">popular film industry<\/a>&nbsp;resource, and Michigan native sons such as actor Jeff Daniels and author Mitch Albom traveled to Lansing to argue for the bill\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gazette of the United States Patent Office<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>But there\u2019s nothing new about Michigan\u2019s relationship with film. Even before the Michigan legislature decided to offer 40 percent across the board refundable tax credit to filmmakers who spend more than $50,000 making a movie in the state, plus further incentives to film in one of the 103 by the state. state-designated core communities and other opportunities (a full list and application package are available online from the Michigan Film Office) \u2013 the state had contributed much to the world of contemporary film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most obvious is the long list of Michigan-born artists who have done significant work in film. As of 2008, that list includes the aforementioned Daniels, who starred in Dumb and Dumber and then returned to his native state to satirize the Upper Peninsula mores in Escanaba In Da Moonlight. It also features Sam Raimi, who revolutionized horror film with The Evil Dead (a student production made in the woods of Michigan) before gaining popularity with A Simple Plan and the Spider-Man trilogy. Ann Arbor native David Goyer revolutionized superhero cinema and contributed to the story work of Christopher Nolan\u2019s acclaimed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s like a setting that Michigan may have really shone. After all, it\u2019s the only state where you\u2019re never more than 85 miles from the beach, yet it offers craggy, mountainous sites, diverse and thriving cityscapes, sparse or densely wooded forests, enough flat farmland to cover any Midwestern state, and of course those sand dunes. Does your script require an urban locale? Go to Detroit, where parts of Semi-Pro, Four Brothers, The Island and Transformers were shot, all of which made up 8 Mile locations. How about a beautiful, cultured student city? Try Ann Arbor, set for parts of the recent Jumper and the upcoming Youth In Revolt. The Michigan forests inspired Ernest Hemingway \u2013 and they also lend some of Raimi\u2019s inimitable eerie charm. s Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. A Detroit suburb becomes a major supporting presence in John Cusack\u2019s classic black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank, and of course we haven\u2019t even mentioned the state\u2019s beaches, small towns or the craggy Porcupine Mountains, about the German-imitating tourist town of Frankenmuth. or the Scottish festival that puts little Alma on the map (and then takes it away) every year. Because of its geographic diversity, Michigan can replace almost any state in the Union. about the German-imitating tourist town of Frankenmuth or the Scottish festival that puts little Alma on the map (and then takes it away again) every year. Because of its geographic diversity, Michigan can replace almost any state in the Union. about the German-imitating tourist town of Frankenmuth or the Scottish festival that puts little Alma on the map (and then takes it away again) every year. Because of its geographic diversity, Michigan can replace almost any state in the Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fresh Coast Film Festival<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, movies have been made in Michigan for almost as long as anywhere else. Such early silent shorts as Baby Lund and Her Pets (1899) and Cadet Cavalry Charge (1900), starring the Cadet Battalion of the Michigan Military Academy, were shot in Detroit. (Back then, movies were typically less than five minutes long and usually featured small snippets of real life events \u2014 so the titles of these movies more or less summed up their content.) In 1908, Michigan set the stage for an eight-minute long version of The Count of Monte Cristo, which appears to have been the first draft of that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20240518195601\/https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/toronto-international-film-festival-is-still-a-friend-of-independent-films\/\">oft-filmed piece<\/a>. This version is largely a package highlighting scenes from the then-popular play based on Dumas\u2019 novel,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And with the birth of feature film comes a series of classics set and\/or partially filmed in Michigan, such as the Upper Peninsula-based mystery Anatomy of a Murder, Eddie Murphy\u2019s breakthrough hit Beverly Hills Cop, the John Belushi-starring Continental Divide, and the teen cult classic Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off. Renowned screenwriter Paul Schrader has used his experiences in Grand Rapids and Detroit for films like Blue Collar and Hardcore (which parodies and also flatters the Dutch Reformed subculture of West Michigan), and RoboCop, The Untouchables and Road to Perdition all use Michigan locations too. And anyone who\u2019s seen the classic Christopher Reeve\/Jane Seymour novel Somewhere In Time knows all about Mackinaw Island\u2019s potential as a movie set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are Michigan officials ready to support the new influx of filmmakers they\u2019ve courted? Certainly, the state already has its own official film agency, has an experienced tourism bureau, and provides filmmakers \u2013 in Checker Sedan \u2013 a transportation company for filmmakers with decades of experience assisting local and national productions with everything from bringing daily newspapers to the developer to pick up that special star or starlet from the Detroit Metro Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An upper Midwestern state has gone to great lengths to make itself a sought-after movie location \u2014 and the entertainment industry is taking notice. A legislative package recently passed by the Michigan legislature provides incentives to lure filmmakers to Wolverine State. And with broad tax breaks, cash rebates, and a low-interest loan program among the new Michigan film production benefits offered by this sixteen-account initiative, aspiring and established filmmakers may find Michigan\u2019s offer hard to refuse. The bill has already&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/?p=34\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Michigan on film \u2013 an endlessly useful location<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fulldvd.org\/michigan-on-film-an-endlessly-useful-location\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michigan on film \u2013 an endlessly useful location\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An upper Midwestern state has gone to great lengths to make itself a sought-after movie location \u2014 and the entertainment industry is taking notice. A legislative package recently passed by the Michigan legislature provides incentives to lure filmmakers to Wolverine State. And with broad tax breaks, cash rebates, and a low-interest loan program among the new Michigan film production benefits offered by this sixteen-account initiative, aspiring and established filmmakers may find Michigan\u2019s offer hard to refuse. The bill has already... 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