Governor, film commission confirm 9NEWS report

DENVER – Governor Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) and the Colorado Film commission confirmed on Wednesday that Paramount Pictures will film a major motion picture in Denver later this year.

On Tuesday, 9NEWS Entertainment Reporter Kirk Montgomery reported that the film "Nowhereland" was scheduled to be filmed in Denver during the month of October.

"We are pleased to be hosting this production from Paramount Pictures and we are excited about the producer's decision to make the city of Denver a major part of this film," said Ritter in a press release. "This will be the largest production in Colorado in several years and we hope this is a sign of good things to come for our film industry."

The motion picture, which will star Eddie Murphy, is described as a dark comedy. The film will be directed by Karey Kirkpatrick whose last film was the animated Dreamworks feature "Over The Hedge." The film is being produced by Di Bonaventura Pictures.

Sources close to the production say this will be one of the biggest budgeted films ever shot in and around the city. There is no word yet if any local cast or crew members will be needed.

Colorado is in competition with other states to attract filmmaking. The competing states, which include New Mexico, offer substantial tax benefits for filmmakers.

The last major motion picture to film in Colorado was "Resurrecting the Champ" starring Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett, with a cameo by John Elway. It is scheduled to be released in August.

Key scenes of "Catch and Release" in 2005, "About Schmidt" in 2002 and "Silver City" in 2004 were also filmed in Colorado.

The Colorado Film Commission says that the film industry is big business. It hopes more of that big business will come to Colorado, but admits it is a challenge.

"The states that are getting the most incentives are getting the most business. Colorado has a long way to go to make its incentives attractive," said Kevin Shand, the executive director of the Colorado Film Commission.

States like New York have a $60 million cap on incentives for the film industry. Colorado's cap is $600,000. The cap was just implemented in 2006 and Ritter expanded it by 20 percent earlier this year.

"The biggest challenge is the Colorado state budget. It doesn't have the money to allocate to an incentive program," said Shand.

Ritter's spokesperson, Evan Dreyer, said, "The Governor sees the significance of the film industry to our economy. Trying to work within the fiscal restraints is the challenge. Ultimately we want to be competitive."

The Colorado Film Commission says that a production company can spend as much as $150,000 a day on location.

"When a production comes to town they check into a hotel and they rent cars. They have to rent equipment and hire local crews and support. They will hire local caterers and they'll buy food for the folks on set. They pay location fees and they will buy lumber to build sets. The money really goes through the entire economy," said Shand.

"After the movie is released there is potentially millions of dollars from the economic impact from tourism coming into the state to see where the movies have been filmed," he said.