Spider-Man and Cameron Crowe movies give L.A. production a jolt

Angelenos have good reason to be despondent about the flight of filming from California.

After all, the upcoming alien invasion movie “Battle: Los Angeles,” was actually shot in Baton Rouge and Shreveport, La., not Southern California. “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”  has been filming in Dubai; Prague, Czech Republic; and Vancouver, Canada. 

Marvel Studios selected London over Los Angeles as home base for filming of its comic book hero movie “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

And New Zealand served as the backdrop for Jellystone Park in the Warner Bros. current 3-D movie “Yogi Bear.”

But for all the hand-wringing about film flight -- film industry promoters recently unveiled a $135,000 marketing campaign to market the local movie and TV industry -- at least two major-studio feature films are staying close to home, providing some relief to a sector that has been buffeted by job losses.

Sony Pictures recently began filming its fourth installment of the Spider-Man series locally, and 20th Century Fox’s “We Bought a Zoo,” starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, is preparing to begin production in Thousand Oaks next month.

For below-the-line crews who’ve been hard hit by the effects of runaway production and studios making fewer feature films, the film projects come at an opportune time.

"It’s tremendous to have these films because you’re talking about hundreds of jobs that will stay in the area," said Ed Duffy, business agent for Teamsters Local 399, which represents location managers, casting agents and studio drivers. 

The latest Spider-Man film alone will employ nearly 1,000 crew members, including construction workers building sets for the production, which takes up seven stages on the Sony Pictures lot.

Sony began its 90-day film shoot for the Spider-Man film two weeks ago, mainly on the lot but also on location: including at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood and Immanuel Presbyterian Church in mid-Wilshire.

Scheduled for release in 2012, the Spider-Man film has an entirely new cast (British actor Andrew Garfield, replaces Tobey Maguire) and is being directed by Marc Webb at less than half the budget of the previous Spider-Man film,  which cost more than $250 million to make.

While the production will include two weeks in New York (where the story is set), the bulk of filming will occur in Los Angeles on the Sony lot and various locations around town, from South Pasadena to San Pedro to Woodland Hills.

Sony had ample incentive to select L.A. as its primary destination.

“This the fourth Spider-Man production we have shot primarily in Los Angeles and for good reason," Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesman Steve Elzer said. “The crews here are the best in the world but there is a comfort level in producing a project of this size and scope on your own backlot. “

Basing the film on the lot also makes it easier for producers to interact with Sony’s in-house visual effects team, and gives the studios greater control of quality and security, Elzer added.

Nonetheless, Sony had considered other locations and filmmakers met with city and film industry officials this summer seeking assurances that they would be able to film key scenes downtown. “They wanted assurances that a film like that could be made in L.A." said Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A. Inc., the nonprofit film permit group.

In Thousand Oaks, crews have been building a zoo on a private ranch as they prepare to begin a 50-day shoot next month for “We Bought a Zoo.”

Directed by Cameron Crowe, the film is based on the bestselling memoir of the same name about an Englishman who build a wildlife preserve to care for some 200 animals.

-- Richard Verrier

Comments

[inbox1909]

135,ooo dollar marketing campaign? Marketed to who? Out of work Angelenos? How about Mayor Pancho Villa gets off his comfy courtside seat and works out a bill with the rest of the city council and governor and fix once and for all a tax package to keep film work in the state? Shooting Captain America in a foreign land is a disgrace. Someone should pelt the homes of all the overpaid studio heads in Malibu with rotten eggs.

With billions of dollars in tax breaks going to the wealthy, and a defense bill of almost a trillion dollars passing without any debate, why can't our politicians help one of the signature industries stay in the US?

[david]

American corporate elites will never learn-- exporting production (of anything) ensures that Americans will eventually not even be able to afford to go to the movies! I agree with inbox1909... THE STUDIO HEADS AND A-LIST ACTORS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. Such an air of selfishness and greed. Even Louis B. Mayer would be rolling over in his grave if he saw the current mode of production in Hollywood. Greed, all around has created this nightmare. From greedy politicians, sky high tax rates, and disloyal studio chiefs. A-List actors should demand a project be shot locally. Pretty soon, producers will just start casting in New Zealand and London, and then no more $20million salary for Matt Damon or Angelina Jolie. And who cares about this campaign? A measly 135,000dollars? Spread over all of Los Angeles..? That's one bus side poster per district? I don't get it. Tax rates need to be redrawn, the city needs to mandate that production stay inside Los Angeles if the studios are to be granted buisness permits, and actors need to step up and use their clout!