Georgia sets sights on motion-picture industry | savannahnow.com

ATLANTA — Georgia officials demonstrated how welcoming they are of motion-picture production companies this week by opening up the state Capitol to them.

All week, government staffers tiptoed over cables and ducked under lights to get to their offices during filming of the feature movie “Kill the Messenger” staring Jeremy Renner, who played Hawkeye in “The Avengers.”

Renner plays Gary Webb, a real, Pulitzer-winning reporter who becomes tangled in a smear campaign after alleging the Central Intelligence Agency was selling drugs to poor Americans as a way to get funds to Central American revolutionaries despite a congressional prohibition.

The movie is set to be released in 2014, a decade after Webb died of two gunshot wounds to the head, which was ruled a suicide.

Following behind California and New York, Georgia has made its way in the Hollywood circle.

With Georgia’s versatility from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the coast line in Savannah, filming and production has become a $3.1 billion industry here.

Tax incentives have helped.

“We have a whole package of incentives, perfect climate, diverse cities, mountains, coasts, and infrastructures. Everything put together creates a firestorm here,” said Lee Thomas, division director of Georgia’s film, music and digital entertainment office.

via Georgia sets sights on motion-picture industry | savannahnow.com.