| One upper-Midwestern state has gone to great | | | | those sand dunes. Does your script require an urban |
| lengths to render itself a desirable filmmaking | | | | locale? Head to Detroit, where parts of Semi-Pro, |
| location-and the entertainment industry is taking | | | | Four Brothers, The Island and Transformers were |
| notice. | | | | shot, and which provided all the locations for 8 Mile. |
| A legislative package recently passed in the Michigan | | | | What about a gorgeous, cultured college town? Try |
| legislature offers incentives designed to lure | | | | Ann Arbor, backdrop for parts of the recent Jumper |
| filmmakers to the Wolverine State. And with broad | | | | and the upcoming Youth In Revolt. The Michigan |
| tax breaks, cash rebates, and a low-interest loan | | | | woods inspired Ernest Hemingway-and they also lend |
| program among the new benefits for Michigan-based | | | | some of the inimitable creepy charm to Raimi's Evil |
| film productions offered by this sixteen-bill initiative, | | | | Dead and Evil Dead II. A suburb of Detroit becomes |
| fledgling and established filmmakers alike may find | | | | a major supporting presence in John Cusack's classic |
| Michigan's offer a difficult one to refuse. Already the | | | | black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank, and of course, |
| bill has attracted notice in Variety, a popular film | | | | we haven't even talked about the state's beaches, |
| industry resource, and Michigan's native sons such as | | | | small towns or the craggy Porcupine Mountains, |
| actor Jeff Daniels and author Mitch Albom traveled to | | | | about the German-imitating tourist town Frankenmuth |
| Lansing to argue for the bill's passage. | | | | or the Scottish festival that every year puts tiny |
| But there's nothing new about the relationship | | | | Alma on the map (and then takes it off again). |
| between Michigan and film. Even before the Michigan | | | | Because of its geographical diversity, Michigan can |
| legislature decided to offer a forty percent | | | | stand in for nearly any state in the Union. |
| across-the-board refundable tax credit to filmmakers | | | | In fact, movies have been made in Michigan for |
| who spend over $50,000 making a movie | | | | almost as long as they've been made anywhere. |
| in-state-plus further incentives for shooting in one of | | | | Such early silent shorts as Baby Lund and Her Pets |
| the 103 state-designated Core Communities, and | | | | (1899) and Cadet Cavalry Charge (1900), starring the |
| other opportunities (a complete list and application | | | | Michigan Military Academy's Cadet Batallion, were |
| package are available online from the Michigan Film | | | | filmed in Detroit. (In those days, movies were |
| Office)-the state had contributed a great deal to the | | | | typically under five minutes long, and tended to |
| world of contemporary film. | | | | feature small snippets of real-life events-so the titles |
| Most obviously, there's the long list of Michigan-born | | | | of these movies pretty much summarize their |
| artists who have gone on to do significant work in | | | | contents.) In 1908, Michigan provided the backdrop |
| film. As of 2008, that list includes the | | | | for an eight-minute version of The Count of Monte |
| above-mentioned Daniels, who costarred in Dumb and | | | | Cristo, which seems to have been the first version |
| Dumber, then returned to his native state to satirize | | | | of that oft-filmed play. This version is largely a |
| Upper Peninsula mores in Escanaba In Da Moonlight. It | | | | highlights package of scenes from the then-popular |
| also includes Sam Raimi, who revolutionized horror film | | | | stage play based on Dumas's novel-but 1908 was |
| with The Evil Dead (a student production made in the | | | | also the year director D.W. Griffith began to work in |
| Michigan woods) before going on to popular success | | | | film, and the medium's potential for telling a |
| with A Simple Plan and the Spider-Man trilogy. Ann | | | | feature-length story would soon be tapped. |
| Arbor-born David Goyer helped revolutionize the | | | | And with the birth of feature film comes a series of |
| superhero movie, contributing story work to | | | | classics set and/or partially filmed in Michigan, such as |
| Christopher Nolan's acclaimed Batman Begins and The | | | | the Upper Peninsula-based mystery Anatomy of a |
| Dark Knight. Indie director Mike Binder set his film The | | | | Murder, Eddie Murphy's breakthrough hit Beverly Hills |
| Upside of Anger in his home state (though he didn't | | | | Cop, the John Belushi-starring Continental Divide, and |
| film there) before going on to direct the acclaimed 9 | | | | the teen cult classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Noted |
| 11 drama, Reign Over Me, and of course that's not | | | | screenwriter Paul Schrader has drawn on his Grand |
| even mentioning Flint, Michigan's liberal crusader | | | | Rapids and Detroit experiences for films such as Blue |
| Michael Moore, of the most commercially successful | | | | Collar and Hardcore (which parodies, and also flatters, |
| directors in the history of documentary films. | | | | the Dutch Reformed subculture of West Michigan), |
| But it's as a setting that Michigan has perhaps truly | | | | and RoboCop, The Untouchables, and Road to |
| shone. After all, it's the only state where you're | | | | Perdition all use Michigan locations as well. And |
| never more than eighty-five miles from the | | | | everyone who saw the classic Christopher Reeve |
| beach-yet it offers craggy, mountainous locations, | | | | Jane Seymour romance Somewhere In Time knows |
| diverse and thriving cityscapes, sparse or | | | | all about the potential of Mackinaw Island as a film |
| heavily-wooded forests, enough flat farmland to | | | | setting. |
| simulate any state in the Midwest, and, of course, | | | | |