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Though Richard Berry was elected mayor only last week, he already wants to make it clear that film is a priority.
"Let's get those incentives going and show them that Albuquerque is open for the film business," Berry said.
Sure, he's a bit of an unknown quantity. For the past eight years, Mayor Martin Chávez has been a booster of film and hired Ann Lerner at the Albuquerque Film Office, someone the film community loves.
Berry, though, said he's new, and he hasn't had time to look at the Film Office yet, but he is a fan of economic development.
As a Republican state representative, most of Berry's capital outlay requests dealt with schools and senior centers, but, last year, he helped the Media Arts Collaborative Charter school with some capital appropriations money.
It's anybody's guess right now what, if anything, he will do as Mayor Berry with the Film Office when he takes over in December. But he's already made it clear that he's a fan.
Second home
Albuquerque Studios is quickly becoming a second home for Hammer Movies.
Just two months after the production company wrapped shooting "The Resident" at the studios, it's back with the new film "Let Me In."
"We didn't even move the furniture out of their offices," said Jeremy Hariton, senior vice president of Albuquerque Studios. "It's nice they've come back so quickly."
The new film is a remake of the Swedish film "Let The Right One In," which was adapted from the book "Lat ded Ratte Komma" by John Ajvide Lindqvist .
But this isn't "Twilight."
"Let Me In" is a much darker tale of a vampire girl, played by Chloe Moretz ("The Eye"), and her young friend, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee ("The Road").
"Let Me In" sounds like an ambitious project, leasing two studios at Albuquerque Studios and is expected to hire 500 extras for crowd scenes. It starts shooting this week, along with two other movies at Albuquerque Studios.
The movie "Due Date" has been prepping at the studios, and many of the stars are on their way to the set from the first round of shooting in Georgia.
The film is being directed by Todd Phillips, whose film "The Hangover," broke box office records this past summer. "Due Date" stars Robert Downey Jr. ("Iron Man") and Zach Galifianakis ("The Hangover") as two unlikely companions who are thrown together on a road trip. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx is also cast in the comedy.
Iowa troubles
Though most states agree that film incentive programs bring film work, Iowa may have gotten more than it bargained for.
This week, Iowa shut down its state film incentive program after some serious allegations of fraud, sloppy bookkeeping and more surfaced after an audit.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver suspended the program after the state attorney general launched a criminal investigation into the office's dealings, The Associated Press reported this week.
The fallout in Iowa is huge. The state jumped in with a generous tax credit program that reimbursed investors and producers each with a 25 percent tax credit. But an audit released Monday said the program's books were rife with questionable purchases listed as production expenses, and there were questions about some signatures on contracts. Some of the films that received rebates never submitted the right invoices.
But now that the governor has suspended the program, films that have applied for tax credits won't receive them, at least any time in the foreseeable future.
Usually with a tax credit, a film company has to sell the credit to a local company, which adds one more step to the process than New Mexico's simple 25 percent rebate.
Though the program has turned many off to filming in Iowa, several in New Mexico are seeing an opportunity for us. Already, a few recruiters have traveled to Iowa to persuade film companies to shoot in New Mexico.
But one bad apple could spoil how the nation looks at the incentive industry.
"It looks bad," Hariton of Albuquerque Studios said. "I liken it to 'Independence Day' where the producers are the aliens and they take all the resources. It can be devastating."
Here in New Mexico, auditors scour the reports and individual receipts producers submit. In New Mexico, if you buy a car for the film, it better be in the script.
The New Mexico Film Office's auditors have thrown out receipts for nonproduction expenses and limit the rebates to only those expenses. Wrap parties, for example, may be a common courtesy for films, but they're not eligible for rebates.
This summer, the New Mexico Film Office changed its policy regarding its own bookkeeping and will release an aggregated report showing what film companies spent their money on in the state. It won't go into detailed info.
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