By Ed Stannard
Posted June 3rd 2007

Get used to seeing Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Hilary Swank and Robert De Niro strolling down the street.
Harrison Ford, too, when he's not racing on a motorcycle through Yale University's Old Campus.

Long a state where the stars live, Connecticut is becoming more and more a place where they work, too.

News that the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie will be filmed partly in New Haven set the region abuzz, but it's just the latest big-budget production coming to the state. Last week, word leaked that a location crew for "Righteous Kill," starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, was checking out sites in West Haven and New Haven.
"In general, high-caliber pictures are calling every day to inquire about coming to Connecticut," said Ellen Woolf, project manager for the state Commission on Culture and Tourism's Film Division. "This is all generated by our tax credit."

Starting July 1, when the state began offering a 30 percent business tax credit for films made in Connecticut, directors like Steven Spielberg ("Indiana Jones") and Sam Mendes ("Road to Perdition") have been looking east.

Others, such as state residents Ron Howard and Barry Levinson, who recently brought De Niro and Sean Penn to Bridgeport for "What Just Happened?," may become homebodies.

Woolf described the effect the tax credits have had. Traditionally, the state generated $3 million to $6 million a year in filmmaking revenue. Then, the film-incentive law went into effect.

"Immediately, we had three films come in," she said — "In Bloom" (starring Uma Thurman and shot in New Haven), "Reservation Road" and "The Bronx is Burning." Together, they generated $36 million to $40 million in money spent in Connecticut.

"This year can easily be $200 (million) to $300 million," Woolf said. Every day, the Film Division receives inquiries from independent and studio filmmakers for projects with budgets from $500,000 to $100 million.

"The tax credits are really the best deal in the country so everybody with a film wants to call here," Woolf said.

Barbara Lamb, director of the New Haven Office of Cultural Affairs, said inquiries she's received since the tax credit took effect have increased "exponentially."

"Since that time, I've got a stack on my desk that's 6 inches thick," she said.

"Essentially, the tax incentive was the main draw" for "Laws of Motion," starring Swank and Matthew Perry, which will be filming this summer in Norwalk, said Peter Pastorelli of the production staff.

"Indiana Jones" is a huge coup, Lamb said, because the shooting will take more than a week and the production will require major spending for sets and crew.

Lamb said one film crew, shooting only interiors, "sort of came in, did their thing and left." But "nothing has been anywhere near as big as this one."

The dollars that movie productions inject into the state economy are shared by a large number of businesses, Woolf said. There are the obvious beneficiaries — hotels and restaurants — but film crews spend money on lots of small businesses as well: rental cars, dry cleaners, copy centers, travel agents, office supply stores, flower shops, furniture rental companies, hardware stores, pharmacies, gas stations.

"The usage of vehicles is phenomenal on sets," Woolf said. "They routinely run passenger vans between staging (areas) back and forth with crew and talent to where they're filming."

For "Indiana Jones IV," for example, the sets and costumes may be stored at a warehouse in Hamden and brought as needed to downtown New Haven.

Since the film studios are not usually Connecticut-based, and the tax credits are only available to companies incorporated in the state, brokers such as the new Connecticut Film Center LLC in Stamford buy the credits in exchange for production services, then sell them to Connecticut-based companies, Woolf said.

While saving money is the main draw, filmmakers also look at Connecticut because of its location and diversity. It's one way that being a small state in the shadow of New York City serves as an advantage.

Eric Smith, marketing director of the Westport Country Playhouse, has connections with numerous actors through his job and his previous post at New Haven's Long Wharf Theater.

"There are a lot of stars that live in this area ? It's convenient for them to shoot here because they can go home at the end of the day ? and it's closer to New York," he said.

"We have so many diverse locations that are all within a two-hour drive from each other," Woolf said, including farms, cities, rolling hills and a coastline.

Lamb said New Haven alone offers a variety of potential locations. "New Haven has Yale ? New Haven has a lot to offer in one small, compact area," she said, listing the harbor, the lighthouse, neighborhoods that range from Victorian and 1920s styles to inner-city areas.

"In many ways, we are sort of a microcosm of New York City," Lamb said. The city's location on highways and rail lines, plus a regional airport, helps too.

The booming Connecticut film industry will also benefit would-be extras and production assistants. The news that "Indiana Jones" would shoot in New Haven generated a bunch of calls and e-mails, Lamb said.

Two weeks ago, there was a casting call in Stamford for Mendes' "Revolutionary Road" and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," starring Amber Tamblyn and "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrara.

The challenge of playing host to major film productions is the inconvenience of closed roads and crowded streets, Lamb said. She is especially concerned about those who come into the city for jury duty or doctor's appointments. "They're not people who come into the city all the time and (they're) the ones we don't want to scare away," he said.

Building on the success of the tax incentives, the General Assembly is considering broadening the credit to include digital productions, starting training programs for film production and adding incentives to bring studios to the state, according to House Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford.

NBC Sports has agreed to build a facility here, bringing 200 jobs. "This is exactly what we wanted to happen," he said.

Amann said a digital studio soon will announce plans to move from New York to Connecticut, on a par with DreamWorks or Pixar. "They're a big name," he said.