City-parish incentive lures ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ here
By GARY PERILLOUX
Advocate business writer
Published: Jul 23, 2009 - Page: 1B

To secure the first Baton Rouge-based major-studio film since Hurricane Katrina, city-parish officials have offered a $175,000 cash incentive in exchange for a projected $25 million economic impact.

“Battle: Los Angeles” is in pre-production at Celtic Media Centre, the Baton Rouge studio launched by the late Brendan O’Connor in 2006. Filmmakers will spend six months in the city, employing an average of 150 to 200 people during fall filming. Up to 1,500 extras could be used, filmmakers said.

Original Film Inc.’s Neal Moritz will produce the movie for Sony Corp. subsidiary Columbia Pictures.

“This is the largest-budgeted film in the history of Baton Rouge,” Mayor-President Kip Holden said in a Wednesday news conference announcing the movie. “This is a tremendous boost for our local economy.”

Executive producer Jeffrey Chernov declined to disclose the picture’s full budget, specifying only that it would be in the “double-digit” millions.

The battle for “Battle: Los Angeles” was intense, Chernov said, with Georgia providing stiff competition. The movie also will be eligible for Louisiana’s film tax credit, expanded this year from 25 percent to 30 percent, matching Georgia’s best incentive.

“It was made very clear to us very quickly that Louisiana was going to be very competitive with Georgia,” Chernov said. “It was a slightly difficult decision to come to Baton Rouge because of the infrastructure.”

An expanding theatrical union crew base and support from Holden and the Baton Rouge Film Commission swayed the decision, said Chernov, who said a third of the movie’s live filming would take place in Shreveport — where it’s easier to shut down freeway ramps for extended periods.

The film’s plot entails a Marine platoon going behind alien enemy lines to protect Earth’s water supply, Chernov said. The film will take a character-driven, “Saving Private Ryan” approach, he said.

Two-thirds of the filming will take place in Baton Rouge, where the movie will use 40,000 square feet of soundstage space at Raleigh Studios within the Celtic Media Centre, along with 25,000 square feet of office space there.

Holden said he’s willing to make more local incentive offers to establish Baton Rouge as a landmark for major motion picture activity. The $175,000, to be voted on by the Metro Council on Aug. 12, will come from surplus funds.

“Based on the amount of money they’re spending on this film, it’s really a no-brainer,” Holden said.

The city-parish’s Finance Department confirmed later Wednesday that $12.2 million in surplus funds would remain if the $175,000 incentive and other pending items before the Metro Council are paid. Holden said the local incentive was critical in making Baton Rouge more competitive versus in-state rivals, including Jefferson Parish.

Winning a Sony film project makes Baton Rouge far more attractive to other major studios, such as Disney, Fox and Universal, said Amy Mitchell-Smith, executive director of the Baton Rouge Film Commission.

“It’s a major game-changer for our market,” she said. For context, the economic impact of all filming in Baton Rouge’s peak year — 2007 — was $75 million, she said.

Bob Bayham, Celtic Group’s executive vice president, said the Celtic Media Centre’s growth would be aided greatly by “Battle: Los Angeles.” A dozen permanent tenants are now based at Celtic to support movie projects.

“He’d be ecstatic,” Bayham said of Brendan O’Connor, the Celtic founder who died in January. “This is exactly what we’ve been working toward in the last 3 and a half years.”