Michigan denies incentives application for $58 million movie

Director Doug Limon won’t be working in Michigan

The Michigan Film Office seems to be denying film incentive applications in order to stretch Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed $25 million film cap for movies throughout the rest of the year.  

The state’s biggest incentive application of the year was denied was director Doug Liman’s (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”) untitled movie for Paramount.  It would have spent $58 million in the state, hired 2,256 locals and received a $23 million rebate, reports 

The MFO told the News the reason for the denial was because the producers decided to move the project to another state — while a Paramount spokesperson said the MFO rejected the application.

While the big one got away, two lower-budget movies, with much lower rebates, have been greenlighted.  

Judd Apatow $12.5 million comedy, “Five Year Engagement,” starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel, was approved for a $5.2 million rebate and will shoot in Ann Arbor.

“Spy Kids:4,” starring Antonio Banderas and Jessica Alba, which was shot elsewhere, will get a $1.8 million rebate on roughly $4.5 million it will spend on conversion to 3D at Speedshape, a Birmingham post facility. 

Rejected applications cost Michigan million and thousands of jobs 

The Doug Liman film is among nine of 54 applications that were declined so far this year, according to MFO director Carrie Jones.

These nine projects had planned to spend a total of $155 million (the sum total of Illinois’ feature revenues), seeking $60.5 million in rebates, and would’ve hired as many as 4,730 locals.  

Other rejected Michigan-planned projects headed for states with assured tax credits. Among them: “The Avengers,” now in Ohio, would’ve spent $33.67 million in Michigan and hired 160 residents and TV miniseries “Undaunted Courage,” planned a $43.7 million spend and the hiring of 1,122 locals.  

In West Michigan, what would’ve been Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s fifth film, “Freelancers,” uprooted production from Grand Rapids and shoved off for New Orleans. It had expected to spend $8.24 million in Michigan.