RAPPER-TURNED-ACTOR 50 CENT (Curtis Jackson) landed a whopping $200 million funding deal for a 10-picture deal for his Cheetah Vision company, the company Fiddy launched with producer Randall Emmett in 2009. The company is said to be opening offices in Grand Rapids.
50 Cent’s latest Michigan-based movie is “Love Me, Love Me Not,” for which the rapper lost 54 pounds to play a college football player battling cancer. He went from a robust 214 to a sickly 160 lbs.
AN OCT. 19 GRAND RAPIDS RALLY for the West Michigan Industry Task Force promotes the success created by Michigan’s incentives and the date coincides with a visit to the city from Rick Snyder, GOP candidate and front runner for governor.
Snyder, and his Democrat challenger, Virg Bernero, support the Michigan film incentives, an issue that’s turned contentious in this election season. Although the incentives have generated $35 million in West Michigan alone and an estimated $350 million since the incentives were enacted in 2008, some legislators are voicing opposition to the program.
Says Rally spokesperson Deb Havens, West Michigan Film Video Alliance chair and Task Force co-chair, “We want to make it clear [at the Rally] that there are many people benefiting from this newneconomic force created through the film industry incentives.”
Speakers include: West Michigan Film Office, the impact of $35 million dollars spent in West Michigan; chef Josef Van Horn, caterer, created a crafts services business catering to film production; Malinda Petersen created MP Talent Agency and is finding actors work; Katie Miller, sales director, Gateway Hotel, increase in room nights from film crews; Stasia Savage, IATSE 26 Business Manager, increase in jobs and retrained a work force, and Teresa Thome, Fubble Productions producer of Emmy winner “Come on Over,” Holland.
38 PRODUCTIONS that shot in the state of Michigan so far this year have wrapped, according to the Michigan Film Office, which says it’s poised to be busy for the rest of the year. Two movies and a web game were approved for film incentives last week and more applications flow into the MFO each week.
