ON FRIDAY, the state Senate unanimously passed SB398 that pushes the Illinois tax credit sunset 10 years hence to 2021 — and who knows what can happen by then. All you film folks who phoned and faxed your state senator in protest should feel a great sense of accomplishment in your part in defeating the five year clause. This shared action also showed what we can positively achieve when we rally together to move the film industry forward.
Sidebar: An angry film worker had a testy conversation with Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, one of the three sponsors of the original House bill containing the five year clause. When the film workerasked how come no one consulted with the film industry, Currie snapped, “I did it as a favor to Mike Madigan.” So there ya go.
“CHICAGO CODE” creator Shawn Ryan told casting director Darlene Hunt in an Email that he’s working hard for a second season of his Fox TV show that would shoot here. Ryan will receive a tribute at the April 14 Hugo Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel. Bicoastal @radical media will receive the Hugo’s Committment to Excellence Award.
Since there no Chicago Legend award will be bestowed, I’m allowed to again wear my tiara to the awards. The Chicago film industry has the distinction of having two Legends in its midst. Veteran spot editor Bob Carr accepts his Living Legend Award from the New York International Advertising Festival, May 4-5.
NO REASON to bemoan “The Dark Knight Rises” using Pittsburgh for crime-fighting Gotham City instead of Chicago as the Windy City was never really in the running as the location. It was assumed since “The Dark Knight” shot here in 2008. In January, the Reel reported that Detroit and New Orleans were being talked about as locations and Chicago was not.
However, as scooped by Reel, we get “Superman: Man of Steel” throughout the summer AND Rosie O’Donnell’s new TV talk show that will start taping at Harpo Studios in early September, following the really despairing departure of Oprah for L.A. and her own entire network.
The fate of the 355 Harpo staffers is unknown, but many of them will undoubtedly shift their talents to making Rosie the talk of the town. (Yep, pun intended.)
THE AUTOBOTS AND THE DECEPTICONS of “Transformers: The Dark of the Moon,” which shot here for three months last year, will hit a gazillion theatre screens July 1 — and not July 4, 2012 as Paramount originally announced. This will be the year of the comic book movie as “The Green Lantern” and “Captain America” go into distribution.
CHANGING TIMES. After many running his own Bosco Productions, the times caught up with Angelo Bosco, who recently shuttered his audio/video production company at 160 E. Grand. He has joined Big Shoulders in an unspecified position, but the assumption can be made it involves audio.
AN OFFICIAL NAME CHANGE of TP&R Casting to Paskal Rudnicke Casting reflects dropping the name of Rachel Tenner, who originally co-founded the 15-year old company with Mickie Paskal. Jennifer Rudnicke had her own solo casting company before joining then-Tenner Paskal some years back, when Tenner’s decision to work on her in L.A. became permanent.
FACEBOOK TAPPED ERIC EDGE, Euro RSCG’s global chief communications officer, who later this month joins the social network in a newly created position: manager of global communications, with a focus on brands. Edge has been with Euro since August, 2009. Earlier he headed communications for Euro in North America, and before that he was with DraftFCB.
OFFICE SPACE TO SPARE? Women in Film Chicago is in urgent need of new pro bono office space by May 1, after a year of being graciously housed at Sedgwick Studios, which is going through renovations. Their needs are modest, says WIFC secretary Marianne Greco: A small office or room with internet access where they can hold monthly board meetings and store some stuff would fill the bill.
In exchange, the host will receive corporate sponsorship with all the WIF benefits. Got space? Call Greco at 773/391-2079 or Email.
POPULAR L.A.-BASED JULIE GRAY, who teaches screenwriting classes at Warner Bros., the Great American Pitchfest and the Creative Writing Expo, returns to Chicago with her Character Writing Master Class. Presented by Linda Frothingham’s chicagohollywood.com, it takes place this Sunday, April 10 at Story Studio, 4043 N. Ravenswood.
MIDWEST SCREENWRITERS – you have until April 30 to submit your works of art to the 2011 Chicago Screenwriters Network Contest. Winning scripts will be considered by Hollywood producers, agents and managers looking for new talent and materials. Click here for details.
NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT. More subpoenas have been issued to Sen. Rickey Hendon and three other state senators, who are targeted in a federal probe into state payouts to social service agencies and almost 50 nonprofts and their officials.
As reported earlier in the Reel, Hendon’s sister, Shebeta Carter, and her daughter, Maisha Parsons of their nonprofit The Anointed Harvesters (TAH), obtained a $1.08 million DCEO grant in 2007-08, of which $950,000 ostensibly went towards “upgrading employee skills.”
It’s quite likely that $650,000 of that loan may have been used to fund “Of Boys and Men,” touted as “The Anointed Harvesters first feature film developed as a result of (TAH’s) creative and visual arts training component.”
The Reel welcomes your notes and news. Send to Ruth@reelchicago.com. Do it today.
