IF YOU’VE BEEN COUNTING, Chicago has been bereft of Hollywood feature production for nine months. “Public Enemies” wrapped last June, after six months of spending quite a bit of its $200 million-budget in Chicago and parts of Wisconsin.
Nonetheless, Local 476’s Mark Hogan says he is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of four or five Hollywood movies heading our way in the foreseeable future.
These studio films, plus two or three $5-$7 million indies, are the result of L.A. producers response to the recent Hollywood sales jaunt made by Hogan, IFO’s
Betsy Steinberg and the Teamsters’ John Koley.
One “definite maybe” (as former IFO director Ron Ver Kuilen put it) is “United States,” which will mark the directorial debut of Angela Bassett. She and her husband Courtney Vance will produce under their Bassett/Vance Productions. The movie could get underway here this summer.
CONNECTICUT ISN’T ALL THAT HAPPY that Jerry Springer’s studio will be situated next to a church. The church leader is asking church lawyer to stop Springer’s move-on after complaints from parishioners.
What is also silly about the move is that Springer only has one more year on his 20-year contract. Was NBC Universal so greedy for the tax credit that it couldn’t have waited another year?
