“Transformers 5” to receive $21mm to film in Detroit

“Transformers'” Optimus Prime

Despite the termination of Michigan’s film incentives last July, the state will honor an agreement made with Michael Bay’s “Transformers 5” by providing the production with $21 million in incentives.

The deal was achieved as the result of a plan that takes $42 million in film incentives that had been approved for Paramount projects before the incentives were killed.

Half of that $42 million is being used for a single amended agreement for “Transformers 5,” while the remaining $21 million will be returned to the state general fund of the end of the fiscal year in October, 2017.   

Michigan Film Office Director Jenell Leonard explained in statements that agreements with production companies approved before the incentives ended still must be honored.

Since Paramount hadn’t started filming on the productions involved, a state statute made such a funding reallocation possible.  The MFO, however, did not identify the other Paramount projects that were involved in the “Transformers 5” reallocation.

“Transformers 5’s” return to Michigan, where parts of the first, third and fourth “Transformers” blockbusters were filmed, “is a major economic boost and a testament to the talent of the state’s production community,” said Leonard in a statement.

“Transformers 5” expects to spend $80 million in the state and anticipates hiring 450 Michigan residents as part of a hire of 850 cast and crew and 700 extras.

“Michigan has been so welcoming of Michael Bay and the ‘Transformers’ movies over the years and we are thrilled to be returning for this next incredible installment,” said Lee Rosenthal, president of physical production at Paramount Pictures.

As for “Transformers 5” filming in Chicago, the only word about that possibility was heard from a Local 476 union member who said she’d been put on hold for one week in August.