A new Val Kilmer film, The Steam Experiment, is currently filming in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I got a chance to visit the set the other night, and while I wasn’t able to talk to star Val Kilmer, I did happen to record a video of Armand Assante spilling a martini all over himself (see above).
In the film, Kilmer plays a disgraced science professor with an extreme theory about how global warming will turn the general public into homicidal maniacs. In an effort to get the local paper to publish a story about his theory, he imprisons six innocent people in a steam bath and slowly turns up the heat until his demands are met. Armand Assante plays the tough detective who’s trying to thwart the diabolical plan.
I’ve lived in Grand Rapids for most of my life, and the movie thing is a new development. The state recently passed some very attractive tax incentives in hopes of luring productions to the state. As the Michigan news site Mlive.com reports, “Productions that spend $50,000 or more in Michigan are eligible to receive up to a 40 percent refundable tax credit.” These are reportedly the best tax incentives in the country. It seems to be working, as 50 films have been approved to film here so far this year.
A new New York State budget makes room for a tripling of film production tax incentives, designed to stop the flow of productions running away to nearby states like Connecticut.
The remake of Prom Night is expected to narrowly beat out Street Kings at the box office this weekend, and Sony distribution president Rory Bruer knows why. “Prom night is a common sort of experience,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. And really, this is what people look for when they go to the movies: a reflection of an experience they’ve had, plus murder.
You knew this was coming: The Hollywood Reporter reveals that in addition to apparently ending his political career, Eliot Spitzer’s date with call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre may have a lasting impact on New York state’s recently-resurgent film industry. Gregg Goldstein notes that although both the Repblicate state Senate and the Democrat state Assembly are in favor of upping the tax credits, they have wildly different visions of how the new plan should look. The Senate plan, in putting more emphasis on breaks for above-the-line costs such as actor salaries, would seem to benefit visiting, big-budget studio films; the Democrat Assembly plan, in focusing specifically on below-the-line costs, is more concerned with supporting homegrown talent, and is “meant to help build New York’s film industry infrastructure by supporting and establishing ongoing production jobs.”
So who’s gonna win? Right now the safe money says Spitzer’s replacement David Patterson will do everything he can to rebuild bridges broken by Spitzer’s scandal by playing nice with the Republican Senate. Also, he’s apparently BFF with Spitzer-hating Senate leader Joseph Bruno, which makes it all the more likely that he’ll turn his back on his own party in the name of post-prostitute reconciliation.
I wonder why the grassroots film community hasn’t made a bigger deal out of this yet. It’s enough to make a girl wish that Jem Cohen would start blogging.
We love it when two previously-blogged topics collide. According to Anthony Kaufman, filmmaker Jem Cohen (whose collaboration with Patti Smith I posted about here) sent out an email today asking friends and colleagues to join him in protesting proposed changes to New York City permit regulations for amateur photographers (which I wrote about previously here). As Cohen explains, the proposed changes (which would make permits necessary for any shoot involving more than two people and a hand-held camera that lasted over thirty minutes) would severely limit DIY photography and film/video making in the city:
The fact is that we simply CANNOT predict where, when, and how long we are going to film or photograph; we CANNOT afford expensive liability insurance policies; we occasionally NEED to work with other people or to use tripods to support our gear. (The regulations would, for example, effectively rule out a great deal of time-lapse photography which depends on tripods and cannot possibly be done with time limitations of 10 to 30 minutes, as well as the use of large format still cameras and long lenses).
One of Michael Bloomberg’s greatest successes as mayor has been his promotion of local film and television production. By offering some amazing tax incentives, the Bloomberg administration has re-established NYC as a feasible shooting location for indies. Kaufman says the proposed regulations would tarnish the city’s reputation as a haven for filmmakers pretty significantly. “If the New York Mayor’s Office of Film and TV really cares about New York as a vital indie filmmaking center,” he writes, “They need to stop putting in effect procedures that help Hollywood productions and cripple the low-budget mavens that once made this city the artistic capital of the world.”
If you want to join the protest, click through for the contact info on Anthony’s blog. The Mayor’s office is allegedly accepting feedback on this issue until August 3.
***Brian Grazer has hired Rush Hour auteur Brett Ratner to direct Playboy, a drama about the life and times of Hugh Hefner. It’s the third stab at a Hef biopic, after several drafts by Oliver Stone and a musical version (!) proposed by 8 Mile’s Scott Silver failed to pass muster. According to Variety, Ratner got the job by sending Grazer a Playboy pinball machine.
***ReelzChannel, a new movie-centric cable network, has picked up ten episodes of What I Learned About (Blank) From The Movies, a Best Week Ever-esque series in which “comedians comment on those ‘valuable life lessons’ hidden inside” classic films.
***The Weinstein Company’s quest to turn Tarantino’s half of Grindhouse into an overseas hit has failed. The extended cut of Death Proof has earned just $10 million in four weeks across ten European markets. Variety adds insult to injury by noting that “French patrons were much more interested in maintaining support for Shrek the Third in its second frame.”
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
Quentin Tarantino will give the Cinema Master Class lecture at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
We love it when two previously-blogged topics collide. According to 
