Historic locations and lucrative incentives may have brought the production of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Lincoln movie to Virginia, but state film office location manager Andy Edmunds said it was old fashioned relationship building that helped pave the way.
Edmunds and state film commissioner Rita McClenny addressed more than 100 members of the local film industry at an event yesterday and discussed how they secured the project for the state – a feat more than seven years in the making. Many of those in attendance came to find out more about jobs working on the film.
“To put it in perspective, I have a seven-and-half-year-old son,” Edmunds said. “He wasn’t even born when we started.”
The DreamWorks produced movie will film primarily in Richmond and Petersburg from October through December and employ a crew of up to 200 workers, not including actors. The star-studded cast includes Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president, as well as Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sally Field.
Edmunds said the Virginia Film Office began planting the seeds as soon as they found out Spielberg had optioned the book Team of Rivals by historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin. The office had worked with Spielberg already in 2001 when he filmed a portion of Minority Report in Gloucester County.
Edmunds said he mentioned that Virginia would be ideal for filming Lincoln to Spielberg’s longtime production designer Rick Carter when they were back in the state filming a part of War of the Worlds in Rockbridge County in 2004.
From that point on, it was a waiting game. Edmunds said that Spielberg keeps a pipeline of four to five projects at any given time. This project nearly got started five years ago.
“This project has had many fits and starts,” Edmunds said.
Things finally got serious again last fall when Spielberg came to Richmond to see for himself.
“He rarely comes to scout himself,” Edmunds said. “It’s like the queen coming.”
While Spielberg liked what he saw, Edmunds said they needed a little something extra to seal the deal.
“As they say, it is called show business, not ‘show fun’,” Edmunds said.
Edmunds said that the $3.5 million package that Governor Bob McDonnell put in the state’s budget for the film was the tie breaker needed to bring it to Virginia.
The state had the edge when it came to historic locations and architecture, but Edmunds said that Georgia was willing to fork over four times as much cash as Virginia ended up putting forth to attract the movie.
Film commissioner McClenny said that the incentive package was just enough to sway the decision to Virginia.
“We had to make it compelling, because behind DreamWorks is Disney and behind that are shareholders,” McClenny said. “They would not come here for zero.”
As part of the deal the film has agreed to hire locally as much as possible.
In addition to the direct hiring and spending by the production, bringing the Lincoln film will also be a major boon to the state’s tourism industry for years to come, McClenny said.
“People will want to visit the place where it is filmed,” McClenny said.
Historic locations and lucrative incentives may have brought the production of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Lincoln movie to Virginia, but state film office location manager Andy Edmunds said it was old fashioned relationship building that helped pave the way.
Edmunds and state film commissioner Rita McClenny addressed more than 100 members of the local film industry at an event yesterday and discussed how they secured the project for the state – a feat more than seven years in the making. Many of those in attendance came to find out more about jobs working on the film.
“To put it in perspective, I have a seven-and-half-year-old son,” Edmunds said. “He wasn’t even born when we started.”
The DreamWorks produced movie will film primarily in Richmond and Petersburg from October through December and employ a crew of up to 200 workers, not including actors. The star-studded cast includes Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president, as well as Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sally Field.
Edmunds said the Virginia Film Office began planting the seeds as soon as they found out Spielberg had optioned the book Team of Rivals by historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin. The office had worked with Spielberg already in 2001 when he filmed a portion of Minority Report in Gloucester County.
Edmunds said he mentioned that Virginia would be ideal for filming Lincoln to Spielberg’s longtime production designer Rick Carter when they were back in the state filming a part of War of the Worlds in Rockbridge County in 2004.
From that point on, it was a waiting game. Edmunds said that Spielberg keeps a pipeline of four to five projects at any given time. This project nearly got started five years ago.
“This project has had many fits and starts,” Edmunds said.
Things finally got serious again last fall when Spielberg came to Richmond to see for himself.
“He rarely comes to scout himself,” Edmunds said. “It’s like the queen coming.”
While Spielberg liked what he saw, Edmunds said they needed a little something extra to seal the deal.
“As they say, it is called show business, not ‘show fun’,” Edmunds said.
Edmunds said that the $3.5 million package that Governor Bob McDonnell put in the state’s budget for the film was the tie breaker needed to bring it to Virginia.
The state had the edge when it came to historic locations and architecture, but Edmunds said that Georgia was willing to fork over four times as much cash as Virginia ended up putting forth to attract the movie.
Film commissioner McClenny said that the incentive package was just enough to sway the decision to Virginia.
“We had to make it compelling, because behind DreamWorks is Disney and behind that are shareholders,” McClenny said. “They would not come here for zero.”
As part of the deal the film has agreed to hire locally as much as possible.
In addition to the direct hiring and spending by the production, bringing the Lincoln film will also be a major boon to the state’s tourism industry for years to come, McClenny said.
“People will want to visit the place where it is filmed,” McClenny said.
Anyone have a real forecast on how many dollars the actual filming of the project will inject into our economy? The tourism angle is fuzzy at best. I kind of doubt that many “People will want to visit the place where it is filmed.”
Bruce, I think people will come to see it. Many historic spots around Richmond have become tourist attractions after being shown on the silver screen. The income will have a “long tail of retail” aspect. Smith Mountain Lake still gets tourists from “What About Bob?” filmed in 1990.
The major dollars are spent as the movie is made though. Its phenomenal how much the movie makers pay for production space, hotel space, catering, supplies, etc. to have top of the line of everything available at their finger tips. This is a bounty for the state.
Will DDL (Lincoln) agree to enter Richmond? Depends if he is pre war lincoln. How could he be Lincoln in Richmond?