Santa Fe – When Colorado appears in movies anymore, it’s usually being played by Canada.
But neighbor New Mexico is a rising star, aggressively luring Hollywood moviemakers in recent years with generous incentives that have earned it the nickname “Tamale-wood.”
New Mexico is currently starring as Arizona in a remake of the classic Western “3:10 to Yuma,” with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. And the Land of Enchantment is standing in as both Texas and Baltimore in the small, independent “A West Texas Children’s Story.”
The state also doubled for a Minnesota coal mine in “North Country” and as home of the big-box store in Jessica Simpson’s “Employee of the Month.”
The list is long, getting longer.
Since film booster Bill Richardson became governor in 2003, producers have made 60 films and spent $280 million in the state. The governor’s office calculates total economic activity from the industry of about $800 million.
And Colorado, which ended funding for its first-in-the- country state film office in 2003 because of budget woes, is no longer in the same league.
“This is an industry we are missing out on,” says Denise Strong, a Denver-based member of the Directors Guild of America and vice president of the Colorado Film and Video Association. “This industry offers a big shot in the arm economically for everybody near a location.”
This year in Colorado, a few scenes of “Resurrecting the Champ,” a story about a Denver- based sportswriter starring Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson, were shot locally. Principal photography took place in Calgary, Alberta.
Last year, “Catch and Release,” with Jennifer Garner, spent five days and $500,000 filming in Boulder. Then the film spent 50 days and many millions filming in Canada.
“RV,” with Robin Williams, was set story-wise in the Colorado Rockies but filmed in Canada.
Runaway production – film producers following foreign cash incentives and favorable currency exchange rates – is estimated to have cost many sectors of the American film industry billions of dollars in the past decade and a half.
If Colorado wants a leading role on the silver screen, it will have to offer filmmakers more than the $1 million incentive package passed by the legislature in June, Strong says. But it’s a start.
Over the next two years, that incentive money will provide 10 percent tax rebates on film productions of at least $100,000 under certain conditions.
Film production was once location-driven. With new, portable technology and the doubling in the 1990s of production and distribution costs, the bottom line is the bottom line.
Conventional wisdom was that filming in Canada saved about one-third of production costs, said Eric Witt, Richardson’s director of legislative affairs and media arts. New Mexico tailored its incentives accordingly.
In terms of aggressive incentives, New Mexico has few serious rivals, perhaps Louisiana and New York, Witt said. But several states, including Arizona, Montana, Oklahoma and Florida, are looking at stronger incentive packages in light of New Mexico’s success.
“New Mexico is the role model,” said Kevin Shand, executive director of the new Colorado Film Commission. “They do what film commissions need to do.”
New Mexico’s incentives include rebates of 25 percent of production costs, no-interest loans of up to $15 million, free location scouting and free use of state property.
In the three years since the New Mexico incentives took effect, the state has given out more than $20 million in rebates and roughly $160 million in interest- free loans.
The state negotiates a share of any profits to cover the lost interest, estimated at $7 million to $8 million.
Meanwhile, work began this summer on Albuquerque Studios, a $74 million, 50-acre Hollywood-style film and TV studio just south of the Albuquerque International Sunport, a one-hour, 45-minute flight to Los Angeles.
Pacifica Ventures, which owns Culver Studio, expects to finish building its 500,000 square feet of indoor space by spring. Pacifica chairman Hal Katersky told the Hollywood Reporter that he believes Albuquerque soon will best Vancouver, British Columbia, as a movie capital and become the third-largest film and TV center in this country, behind New York City and L.A.
Shand, the only paid employee at the Colorado Film Commission, said the state’s modest incentive package already has spurred applications representing more than $9 million in production.
Why should states care? The average studio spends $100,000 a day in a location – from hotels to lumber, tires and dry- cleaning bills.
“Colorado is fiscally conservative,” Shand said. “We just need to make a better business case to the legislature.”
Witt estimates the remake of “The Longest Yard” generated about $40 million in eight weeks of production around Santa Fe.
At one point this year, more than a dozen productions were simultaneously underway in New Mexico.
“It made people crazy, but it’s a good problem to have,” Witt says.
The New Mexico film industry has grown from 60 registered union members in 2002 to more than 800 this year. The total estimated crew base is about 1,200.
Shand and Strong both say Colorado has a deep pool of talented filmmakers who would like to be able to work in their home state.
But more movies were made in Colorado in 1897 (five) than were filmed last year.
“A hundred years later, we’re not matching those numbers,” Shand said. “If we could be half as successful in the future as we were in the past, we’ll be doing great.”
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
Memorable movies filmed (at least partially) in Colorado
2006, “The Prestige,” Telluride
2005, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” Glenwood Springs
2002, “About Schmidt,” Boulder
1999, “For Love of the Game,” Aspen
1996, “Independence Day,” Denver
1995, “Things To Do in Denver When You’re Dead,” Denver
1994, “Dumb and Dumber,” Aspen, Estes Park
1993, “Cliffhanger,” Durango area
1991, “City Slickers,” Mancos
1991, “Thelma and Louise,” Unaweep Canyon near Grand Junction
1990, “Die Hard 2,” Denver’s Stapleton Airport
1989, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” southern Colorado
1989, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” Breckenridge
1983, “War Games,” Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs
1980, “The Shining,” Boulder Flatirons (not in Estes Park)
1973, “Sleeper,” Genesee
1969, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Durango
1969, “True Grit,” Telluride
1965, “Cat Ballou,” Colorado Springs
1956, “The Searchers,” Aspen
1956, “Around the World in Eighty Days,” Durango
Compiled by staff writer Electa Draper
