This was in the Saturday Boston Globe!

Hollywood will be makin’ it in Massachusetts
By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff | July 21, 2007

If supporters of the state’s new film tax-credit law can be believed, Hollywood’s about to flood the Hub. No sooner had Governor Deval Patrick signed the bill at the AMC Boston Common yesterday than chatter burst forth of Tinseltown projects headed this way. “We’re definitely going to be tested,” said Nick Paleologos (above, at podium), head of the Mass achusetts Film Office. “There’s never been two or three studios shooting here at the same time, and that’s going to happen now.” The new law, a more generous version of a bill approved a year ago, removes a $7 million ceiling on incentives to filmmakers. Already, it seems, the law’s having the intended effect. No fewer than three films are expected to shoot here soon, including “Bachelor No. 2” with Dane Cook and Kate Hudson, “The Women” with Meg Ryan, and Steve Martin’s “Pink Panther II,” which will be the biggest-budget movie ever made in Massachusetts. As a result of filmmakers’ newfound interest, Chris O’Donnell, business manager for Local 481 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees , said he’s added 175 members in just the past 18 months. Likewise, Angela Peri of Boston Casting said her business is booming. “There goes my life as I knew it,” she said after Patrick put down his pen. In praising the new law, House Speaker Sal DiMasi seemed to diss former Massachusetts Film Bureau boss Robin Dawson, who operated without the benefit of giant tax breaks. “We had a very poor reputation across the country,” DiMasi said. “People in the industry told me they didn’t even have a category to rate Massachusetts.” That was then, this is now. Asked about his favorite Boston-based film, the Speaker smiled. “The next one,” he said.

I am really looking forward to getting some possible auditions from this stuff!

‘Tis all for now!

I have been hearing that a major studio may be built in Massachusetts in the future. I just found some evidence that this could happen. If it does, it would be an amazing time to be an actor in New England.

Here is the article:

Could S. Weymouth Become Hollywood East?
By By Jim O’Sullivan
State House News Service
June 06, 2007

Movie industry executives are awaiting the fate of a film production tax incentives bill before moving ahead with a plan to build up to 10 soundstages at the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, a top House lawmaker said Tuesday. The investment team, including two producers from the HBO series “Rome,” is willing to spend between $70 million and $80 million on the 30-acre complex, where they envision a “one-stop shopping” center for filming and production, lured by the space and paucity of high buildings in the area, said Rep. Ronald Mariano (D-Quincy).”They’re watching this bill before they make a commitment to Massachusetts,” said Mariano, the House’s Financial Services Committee co-chairman, whose district includes portions of the targeted site. The legislation, proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick and endorsed by the Revenue Committee Tuesday afternoon, would strengthen existing incentives by upping the tax credit limit, reducing the minimum budget threshold that triggers incentives, and boosting the payroll reimbursement rate from 20 percent to 25 percent. The measure also qualifies digital media productions for the credits. But the version before the panel slices out a “sunset” extension that lawmakers say would reassure investors concerned the state might change its mind in the next several years. “If we get this bill done, and they’re comfortable that Massachusetts will make a commitment to the movie industry, they will set up the largest moviemaking operation on the East Coast,” Mariano told the News Service after leaving the hearing.

And now the good news is that the legislation was voted in and is waiting on the Governors desk to be approved! Looks good!

‘Tis all for now!

Ok, this is kind of weird. That movie I just recently acted is getting some early press in the gossip columns around the country and on the web. Check it out:

NOW THAT’S ULTRA-PRIVATE
Tony Bennett’s wedding to his girlfriend of 20 years, Susan Crow, on June 20, was so intimate and last-minute that he didn’t invite his daughter, Antonia, or even tell her. Antonia was on the set of her first movie, “The Dysfunctional Book Club,” when she learned about her dad’s wedding by reading The Post. The source added, “Antonia was so spun out and upset that she wasn’t invited, she for got her wardrobe for the second day of re-shoots. It caused a major problem. The entire ending to the film had to be rewritten and changed on the spot. I guess weddings really are stressful.” A rep for Tony didn’t return calls.
Page Six Paula Froelich Gossip column of July 3rd, 2007

I was there on the last day of shooting and there was no stress on the set about last minute changes that I could tell. They just mentioned that they needed to re-shoot one small scene that would only take a couple of hours — the columns story is a bit overblown. But I guess gossip columns need to make it more spicy to be printable. Anyway, like Béla Lugosi always said “There is no such thing as bad press.”

By the way… She has an amazing singing voice and you can check her out here at her Myspace music page.

‘Tis all for now!

I am very happy to report that my good friend Director Richard Griffin has decided to do his next horror film as a SAG union film. I have done some work with Richard in the past, but when I became union I missed out on his latest horror film “Splatter Disco” because all his movies have been non-union. The reason I was able to be in some of his previous movies before “Splatter Disco” was that with “Seepage!” I was not union yet, and with “Pretty Dead Things” I was cast in the movie before I joined the union, and the union has a clause that allows you to finish up any non-union stuff you were working on when you joined the union. Of course, after that it is no more union movies ever again; thus I was disappointed to have missed out on “Splatter Disco”.

Anyway, when Richard was hired to directed Jennifer Scharf’s “Dysfunctional Bookclub“, he was able to see first hand what it takes to make a union movie, and decided that it was not to much of a pain in the ass to do, and his next movie “The Dunwich Horror” will be done as a SAG Ultra Low, and thusly he cast me in the movie! Yipee! This is a double bonus because I am a huge fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and this movie is a modern adaptation of his short story of the same name. Anyway, I am very happy to say the least!

‘Tis all for now!