Private movie studio in City is a hit

[Hospitalitygirl]

As Pa.-backed movie plan flops, private Phila. studio is a hit | Philly | 02/19/2009

While plans to create a 100,000-square-foot movie studio at a Norristown shopping center with $10 million in Pennsylvania taxpayer funds have languished and the very idea of state subsidies for Hollywood is under attack, a King of Prussia developer has turned an empty Philadelphia factory building into a larger "studio filming space" that's already attracted an A-list project, and interest from others, without a dime of government money.

Director M. Night Shyamalan and Paramount Pictures are filming parts of "The Last Airbender" at a 180,000-square-foot former Budd Co. warehouse in East Falls, says Nicholas P. Cannone of landlord Preferred Unlimited Inc.

"Paramount and M. Knight's team are currently constructing massive sets, some close to three stories high, making use of the staggering 35-foot ceiling heights and 75-foot column bays" where Budd used to build stainless-steel railcars and auto parts, Cannone told me.

Filming starts this spring, with a sequel on the drawing board. "We hope to have Paramount and M. Knight on site for a few years." Cannone says Sony Pictures and other "major studios have toured our site in hopes to reuse the remaining warehouse space on site as studio space."

Preferred, owned by developer Michael O'Neill, has rehabbed other parts of the Budd complex as a 260,000 square foot office building for Temple University Health Sytem on Hunting Park Ave. and a 30,000-square foot Fresenius Medical Dialysis Center. And it donated 12 acres to the Salvation Army "to be developed into a Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center," funded by the late McDonald's founders' foundation, where construction began last month.

We don't always need government intervention; oftentimes the best efforts grow organically to fill a need.

[eldondre]

making use of the staggering 35-foot ceiling heights and 75-foot column bays" where Budd used to build stainless-steel railcars and auto parts, Cannone told me.

[Hospitalitygirl]

It's better than sitting empty, rotting, with rats in it.

[eldondre]

shoulda done it 20 years ago. now, the cars it built are ready to be replaced.

[BeBe]

Oh, good, maybe now I can fulfill my dream of being an actress without going far from home.

[Illiniwek]

If anyone makes a movie in that government-backed studio, actors and producers should be limited to making only $500,000, since the government is financing the facilities necessary for the movies.

If Obama says it's good for the bankers, I can't believe it's bad for show biz.

(An MNS production, huh? His last few haven't exactly been home runs....)

[CapnMarko]

We don't always need government intervention; oftentimes the best efforts grow organically to fill a need.

I think this is great news, but I don't know about the not a dime of government money being used. It might not have been used to renovate the structures for studio space, which is as it should be, but I'm fairly sure M. Night will be on the short list for any tax incentives that may or may not still be around for movie production work in PA.

[Winston]

(An MNS production, huh? His last few haven't exactly been home runs....)

That's putting it mildly. He peaked in his rookie year and has been steadily declining ever since. But Airbender has a built-in audience because it's based on a cartoon. The Slumdog Millionaire guy is in it, by the way.

Anyway, that's good news about the movie production business in the city. Hope there's more where that came from.

[Illiniwek]

That's putting it mildly. He peaked in his rookie year and has been steadily declining ever since. But Airbender has a built-in audience because it's based on a cartoon. The Slumdog Millionaire guy is in it, by the way.

Sixth Sense meets Pokemon, huh?