Raleigh Studios opens in Pontiac,MI

Amid uncertainty over the future of Michigan’s movie industry, the $80-million Raleigh Michigan Studios has quietly opened for business in Pontiac.

Michigan’s first major film studio features seven sound stages and state-of-the-art equipment at the site of the former General Motors Centerpoint truck plant and office complex. The studio also has 360,000 square feet of office space, some of which has already been leased to production companies, production services firms and other vendors, said Michael Newport, director of marketing for Raleigh Studios, the California-based company that is a partner in the project.

“We’re moving forward,” he said. “There are still productions coming to Michigan.”

No filming has occurred yet at the studio, whose owners include local businessmen A. Alfred Taubman, Linden Nelson and John Rakolta Jr. But Chris Baum, senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in a recent Film Detroit newsletter that “one major, pre-approved, studio blockbuster has contracted for most of the space at Raleigh for the rest of 2011 and a bit beyond.”

Newport declined to comment about any movies filming at Raleigh Michigan this year, citing confidentiality agreements that studio executives have signed. The Free Press has previously reported that Raleigh Michigan will be the site of filming for “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” a Disney prequel to “The Wizard of Oz.”

The movie was approved for a $40-million state film incentive last year, before Gov. Rick Snyder proposed a limit of $25 million a year on these incentives as part of his budget-savings plan. Disney plans to spend $105 million in the state and hire 257 Michiganders.

“Oz” will keep Raleigh Michigan humming this year, but the studio’s long-term future depends on what happens to Michigan’s movie incentives, which are critical in attracting filming to the state. Plans for the studio had envisioned as many as 3,600 people working at the complex for a variety of companies.

The state’s movie industry opposes Snyder’s $25-million cap because it will significantly reduce filmmaking and is lobbying for a $180-million annual spending limit.

Whether it succeeds in getting a higher cap will be determined during state budget negotiations over the next few weeks.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110505/BUSINESS06/105050483/1002/business