Make that four major Hollywood movie productions in town, and many more on the way, said Film Cincinnati executive director Kristen Schlotman on WVXU's "Cincinnati Edition" Monday.
A production team for an as yet unannounced film is working in town while "Mercy" with Kate Mara and Ellen Page enters its final days, "Inconceivable" with Nicholas Cage and Gina Gershon enters its second week, and "The Killing Of A Sacred Deer" does post-production work here, she said.
She did not indicate when the newest movie will be revealed. In August, she had said two more films – for a total of 10 – would be shot here in 2016, for "the biggest year for filming in the history of the Cincinnati Film Commission."
On Monday, she revised the total: "There will be 10, and potentially 11, if they get up and running quick enough," she said.
And more are coming next year, the 30th anniversary of the Greater Cincinnati Film Commission founding.
"We're lined up with productions well into next year," she said.
She confirmed that the TV series she first mentioned on "Cincinnati Edition" last December is still a possibility, although she declined to give any specifics. "It would be great to have a Netflix series shooting here eight months a year, and taking four months off," she said.
Three films are to be shot here by May by Randall Emmett and his Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films, which is shooting "Inconceivable," their third film here in 14 months. Emmett's company filmed "Marauders" with Bruce Willis and Christopher Meloni and John Travolta's "The Life and Death of John Gotti" here. Emmett made that announcement last week at the "Inconceivable" press conference.
In addition to Cage and Gershon, "Inconceivable" stars Faye Dunaway, Nicky Whalen and the WWE's Natalie Eva Marie.
As in the past, Scholtman credited Ohio filmmakers tax incentives as the biggest factor for bringing Hollywood back to the Queen City – and bringing many repeat customers to film here again.
The city's first movie boom was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when studios discovered it was cheaper to shoot the Oscar-winning "Rain Man," "Eight Men Out," "Milk Money," "Tango & Cash" and "Lost in Yonkers" here than in Los Angeles.
This new wave started in 2011 with George Clooney's "The Ides of March." For that movie, producers needed "to bring in lots of crew and department heads" for the film, she said.
Five years later, most of the crew and department heads are experienced locals from working on "Carol," "Miles Ahead," "Marauders," "Goat" and other films, she said.
Some film school graduates and others pursuing a movie production career have moved here and "signed leases" on apartments to get movie experience, she said.
Here's a link to Schlotman's conversation on "Cincinnati Edition" with host Mark Heyne and me.
