Stalled bill keeps studio in limbo

International Studio Group principal Allan Kassirer said progress on SouthField Studio needs to come soon.

The Farrelly brothers, a pair of Rhode Island natives who traveled to the West Coast and made it big in the film industry, have shot a number of films in Massachusetts, including "Fever Pitch" and "Stuck on You." But they had to return to California to do the bulk of the post production work.

Bobby Farrelly, in a phone interview last week, said he would love to make movies from start to finish in Massachusetts, so he's backing an effort to get a major studio facility built at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station.

Add his voice to the principals of International Studio Group, who over the past two weeks have waged a media blitz to promote the SouthField Studio. They have conducted television, radio, and news paper interviews in an effort to put pressure on state legislators to move an incentive package forward.

The team has even designed the studio to be especially appealing to a Beacon Hill constituency, with Boston-style architecture for sound stages that usually are no more than utilitarian box-like structures. "So when you're walking on the lot, you would feel like you were walking through Beacon Hill," said ISG principal Robert Papazian, a former television producer, studio operator, and chief executive officer of Hollywood's Sunset-Gower Studio.

But it is not clear if their efforts will move lawmakers to approve the tax credit legislation that the studio developers say they need for the $300 million SouthField Studio project.

The bill would give developers tax credits for money spent on construction related to the film industry. The bill, filed by state Representative Ron Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, has been languishing for months in the Joint Committee on Revenue. It was given a hearing and then put on the back burner.

The bill's 20 percent tax incentive would net ISG $60 million in credits toward future income taxes on the studio's profits, based on the $300 million to be spent on construction.

The studio developers say they need the tax credit to go ahead with their plans, which would include 10 to 15 sound stages, post-production support facilities, office space, restaurants, and retail shops. Thus, the media blitz.

"There's been a lot of noise on the issue coming from the film industry, trying to put a match to us," Anthony DeGregorio, senior counsel for the Joint Committee on Revenue, said Wednesday. "The focus of the Joint Committee on Revenue has been on the budget and the big corporate tax piece. This has been going on in the background. Will it come to the foreground? It could, with all the media attention it's getting. I'm sure committee members will be contacted."

For now, the tax incentive package is being kept alive through an extension that will expire on May 30. The committee could simply approve another extension at that point, DeGregorio said.

"It's never quite done until it's dead, and that won't happen until a new [Legislative] session begins the first Wednesday in January of 2009," DeGregorio said.

Mariano, the bill's sponsor, is a bit more optimistic. The joint committee has been tied up with larger issues, he said, predicting discussion of the tax incentive will soon begin. Mariano believes the high-profile pitches by studio executives will help. "Now people can put a face to the project," he said.

Progress needs to come soon, said ISG principal Allan Kassirer. "We're in a real time crunch," he warned. "We would have to think carefully about this if somebody else outside of Massachusetts gets a shovel in the dirt first. Producers will go where they get incentives and facilities. Once they leave Massachusetts, it will be tough to get them back."

The Hollywood executives behind the SouthField Studio project say they are ready to start building - financing is already in place and permitting is expected to be a quick process - as soon as the tax credit is approved.

Studio developers have big hopes for the studio. According to Papazian's partner, James Hirsch, who produced the television series "Rome" and "Nash Bridges," ISG plans to lure convention activity from both national and international organizations to the studio site. Its high-tech facilities will also be a boon to the medical and scientific community, Hirsch said.

Massachusetts, particularly the Boston area, is capable of supporting a flourishing film industry, if studio developers build facilities where movies can be produced, just as New York City currently does, he said.

"The minute the [tax credit] bill passes, we'll be marketing to producers," Hirsch said. "Everything between Boston and New York has always been a race and a competition. Why is this missing?"

Farrelly said there has been a lot of film activity in the state over the past few years due to the tax credits being afforded to filmmakers, but Massachusetts needs to offer these filmmakers a place to conduct the whole process.

"People shoot here, but they're shooting in old warehouses," Farrelly said. "With sound stages, the quality would go way up."

"I think the state would be crazy to let this opportunity go away," Farrelly said of the proposed incentive for studio developers. "The people behind the [SouthField] proposal, as well as for the studio being planned for Plymouth, are all solid individuals in the industry. They're not fly-by-night."

Christine Legere can be reached at christinelegere@yahoo.com.