This year Wilmingtonians could scarcely traverse a few city blocks without running into one of those yellow crew posters, a sure sign a movie or TV project was underway nearby.
Feature films including “Iron Man 3” and “Safe Haven” wrapped after months of shooting; the television drama “Revolution,” starring Billy Burke and Giancarlo Esposito, launched this summer; and a slew of other made-in-Wilmington films are due for a 2013 release.
As of December, nearly 20 productions spent an estimated $230 million in Southeastern North Carolina this year. “Iron Man 3” is thought to have spent at least $80 million, said Wilmington Regional Film Commission Director Johnny Griffin, who credits the state’s tax incentives for productions for the year’s busy season.
Here, we take a look at the region’s banner year in filmmaking, from A to Z.
Action: If “Iron Man 3” puts Wilmington on the map for action films, other crews, such as the drivers on the independent faith-based film “Adrenaline” and the stunt team behind NBC’s “Revolution,” are sure to up the ante. In addition, stunt coordinators with “We’re the Millers” successfully flipped a Winnebago, while pyrotechnic specialists burned down a general-store set for “Safe Haven.” In the spring we even produced “American Warships,” a knock-off of summer’s big-screen action flop, “Battleship.”
Blackout: NBC’s “Revolution,” from Supernatural creator Eric Kripke and executive producer J.J. Abrams, follows a family trying to survive 15 years after all electronic equipment stops working. Cast members include Billy Burke, Tracy Spiridakos, Elizabeth Mitchell and Giancarlo Esposito. The production, which began filming here in early July after filming its pilot in Georgia, took a midseason break Nov. 26. It will air new episodes again in March at 10 p.m. Mondays.
Casting: It was a busy year for area casting agents. Longtime Wilmington casting directors Craig and Lisa Mae Fincannon won an Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for their work on Showtime’s “Homeland,” which is produced in Charlotte. Other casting partnerships included: Tona Dahlquist and “Iron Man 3,” Alexis Allen and “We’re the Millers,” Marty Siu and “Heart of the Country,” and Vanessa Neimeyer and “A Short History of Decay.”
Digital: After more than 120 years, 35 mm film is officially on the way out. As digital takes over, many in the film industry mourn the death of film, but producing a digital print is far cheaper for filmmakers, giving them a shot at distribution, said local freelance camera operator Joe D’Alessandro. “It’s a frontier situation right now,” D’Alessandro said. “Though they’d probably have a smaller audience, it would be great if more people can make smaller films for less.” The digital format helped visiting independent filmmaker Michael Maren get “A Short History of Decay” off the ground this fall in Wrightsville Beach.
Extras: Background actors were in high demand this year, especially for series such as “Revolution,” which regularly hired them to appear as militia, and “Safe Haven,” which called on 500 people to be a part of an Independence Day parade filmed this August in Southport. “Iron Man 3” asked its extras to sign confidentiality agreements, while “We’re the Millers” invited extras to attend a faux state fair, complete with Ferris wheel, games and popcorn, near Brunswick Forest.
Film incentives: In the two years since enhanced film incentives were approved by the General Assembly, the amount of money spent on productions in the state jumped significantly. In 2011, productions spent about $240 million in the state, up from $75 million spent in 2010. Productions that spend at least $250,000 in the state are eligible for tax credits worth 25 percent of their “qualifying expenses.” The per-project cap for credits is $20 million, but TV series aren’t subject to the cap. Production companies also don’t have to pay the 6.9 percent corporate income tax on film tax credits they receive. For “highly compensated individuals,” such as actors, the production can claim the tax credit only on the first $1 million of pay. The package is set to expire at the end of 2014.
GMC: Once the Gospel Music Channel, the family-friendly network has been quietly filming a large portion of its programming with the help of Wilmington production company Swirl Films. The filmmakers have developed about a dozen of GMC’s productions here in the past few years, according to CEO Eric Tomosunas. This year, productions included “Community Service,” which is set to air in February; “For Richer or Poorer,” a six-episode series that will air after the New Year; and the TV movie “Somebody’s Child.”
HBO: The pay-cable network has been a fixture in the Cape Fear region since the screwball comedy “Eastbound and Down” began filming here in 2008. That series wrapped filming its third season here in February and is expected to begin filming its fourth season in the region in February 2013. In June, the HBO-owned Cinemax popped up at Wrightsville Beach to shoot scenes for its Charlotte-based new drama, “Banshee.” And HBO’s film division was in Wilmington and Southport in July to film a TV movie about an American and an English woman brought together by the shared tragedy of losing sons to malaria. “Mary and Martha,” starring Hilary Swank, Brenda Blethyn and James Woods, will air in 2013.
“Iron Man 3”: A nearly year-long battle to attract and successfully create Wilmington’s largest movie production ever came to an end in November. The Marvel Studios/Disney production kicked off shooting May 23 at EUE/Screen Gems Studios and filmed at such locations as the Port of Wilmington, New Hanover Regional Medical Center and the Cape Fear River. The production, whose budget was more than $200 million, hired more than 2,500 crew members, according to the N.C. Film Office. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle, the film hits theaters May 3.
Jennifers: Hollywood East was flooded with well-known Jennifers this year. Jennifer Aniston put the Port City on the map when she got engaged in August to Justin Theroux while filming “We’re the Millers,” in which she plays a stripper posing as a drug dealer’s wife. Earlier in the year, Jennifer Carpenter, of “Dexter” fame, played an Amish woman in “The Occult,” which filmed here in Apil. And Jennifer Connelly (“House of Sand and Fog”) starred alongside Greg Kinnear as a recently divorced couple in the independent comedy “Stuck in Love,” which filmed here in March under the name “Writers.”
Kingsley: Academy-Award-winning actor Ben Kingsley was one of a handful of “Iron Man 3” stars to pop up at well-known Wilmington spots during filming of the action flick. Kingsley, who plays villain “The Mandarin” in the production, took a private tour of the Battleship North Carolina in October. The 68-year-old Brit was doing research for a film about a World War I naval battle.
Locations: From a church scene at Airlie Garden’s Lebanon Chapel for the indie “Heart of the Country” (which filmed here in March) to a stake burning at Bellevue Cemetery for “Witches of East End,” Southeastern North Carolina will be on display on the big and small screen in the coming months. Popular filming spots this year have included the former Brunswick County Community Hospital (“Adrenaline,” “We’re the Millers”), Wilmington’s Forest Hills neighborhood (“Stuck in Love,” “Iron Man 3”), the Historic New
Hanover County Courthouse (“Mary and Martha,” “Community Service”) and the former Ideal Cement Plant in Castle Hayne, which was been tapped as a location by “Revolution” for at least a half a dozen shoots.
Money: In July, “Iron Man 3” stunt crews glided to the Earth from aboard helicopters on Oak Island with help from Southport’s Skydive Coastal Carolinas. The film’s star, Robert Downey Jr., was met by the fragrant blooms of bouquets from Julia’s Florist at his Figure Eight Island rental home this summer. The companies were just a few of the scores of area businesses to benefit from the production, which state film officials estimate infused $89 million into the local economy.
Nimble: The guys at Swirl Films – Eric Tomosunas, David Eubanks and Keith Neal – often work at breakneck speed to churn out an hour of story per day, a typical shoot for the 15-year-old production company that filmed multiple projects for the GMC cable channel this year. A network drama series such as “Revolution” takes more than a week to produce a one-hour episode.
“One Tree Hill”: The long-running CW TV show did not film in Wilmington this year (its series finale aired April 4), but plenty of its former cast members did. Daniella Alonso, who played Anna Taggaro during the drama’s second season, co-stars on NBC’s “Revolution” as Nora, a feisty rebel fighter with a penchant for blowing things up. This spring, Jana Kramer (Alex on “OTH” ) played Faith, the lead role in the John Ward drama, “Heart of the Country.” Bryan Greenberg (Jake on “OTH”) was back in town in October for “A Short History of Decay,” a small independent film about a family struggling with a mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. And locally produced indie “Don’t Know Yet” tapped Lisa Goldstein-Kirsch (Millicent on “OTH”) to play a lead role in the comedic drama about a heartbroken man who’s seeking the answers to a meaningful life by giving rides to hitchhikers.
Paltrow: During the filming of “Iron Man 3” this summer, Gwyneth Paltrow and co-star Robert Downey Jr. developed a craving for fresh seafood and were return guests to Catch restaurant on Market Street in Wilmington. But Paltrow took her love for culinary arts to the next level. It didn’t take much for the actress to convince Catch chef and owner Keith Rhodes to give her a cooking lesson, which she detailed in her lifestyle blog, Goop.com.
Questions: Despite a move to extend the state’s film incentive program to the end of 2014, state and local film industry leaders remain worried that a tax-reform effort Republican General Assembly leaders have promised to undertake in the 2013-14 session could threaten the industry’s long-term goals. Union leaders and film crews have said they will focus their efforts in 2013 on educating new lawmakers on the job gains the state has made since sweetening its film incentive program.
Repurposed: NBC’s post-apocalyptic “Revolution” set up shop in Wilmington after its pilot episode filmed in Atlanta for a simple reason: locations. Unlike some TV series that return to the same soundstage sets weekly, “Revolution” has few standing sets. Instead, its scouts, set designers and construction crews have to search out, envisage and create a world that nature has reclaimed. The process keeps crews on their feet, said location scout Vick Griffin. “What’s unique to the ‘Revolution’ world is that everything must be repurposed,” he said. “We need a coffee shop, but then we need to turn it into a rebel base. We’re creating the period as we go along.”
Southport: “Safe Haven” is hardly the first motion picture to film in Southport. It’s not even the first feature film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel to shoot there. Portions of Sparks’ “Nights in Rodanthe” were shot locally and on the EUE/Screen Gems Studio lot. And Southport stood in for Beaufort, N.C., in the movie version of “A Walk to Remember.” But Southport is not just where the movie filmed – it’s part of the cast. Filmmakers are estimated to have spent $15 to $20 million in the region while shooting this past summer, according to the N.C. Film Office. Now, the Brunswick County community has high hopes that the film’s stars – Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel and David Lyons – will help attract visitors long after the film’s Feb. 14 release.
Thrillers: Thrill seekers will have a lot to scream about next year. Four supernatural horror thrillers filmed in Hollywood East this year, beginning with director James Wan’s “The Conjuring” in March. The thriller, written by Chad and Carey Hayes (“House of Wax”), is based on the real-life experiences of couple Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), who worked as psychic investigators during the 1970s. Next, “The Occult,” a horror film that follows five girls born – and cursed – in a devout village, made use of rural Pender County locations such as the Universalist Unitarian Camp at Shelter Neck in April. In “Jessabelle,” a Principato Young Entertainment production that also filmed here in April, Australian actress Sarah Snook battles an angry ghost determined to destroy her. Way less creepy of a story is Lifetime’s pilot “Witches of East End,” about a family of witches forced to suppress their mystical abilities for centuries. The pilot filmed here in October.
Unions: Crews from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE, local 491, and Teamsters Local 391 were put to work on a variety of productions this year. Meanwhile, a merger between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was expected to improve representation for the state’s approximately 1,000 SAG-AFTRA members.
Vassar: The production of Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” made 2012 a banner year for EUE/Screen Gems Studios and its executive vice president Bill Vassar. For the first time in the Wilmington studio’s 16-year history, all of its sound stages were full for nearly the entire year, Vassar said. The successful production of “Iron Man 3” will set Screen Gems apart, Vassar said. “It’s like we were playing ball with the New York Yankees,” he said. “We had to step up our game. We learned to deal with productions on a whole different level.”
Warner Bros.: Three of the Port City’s largest productions this year hail from the entertainment monolith, which was familiar with our area after making nine seasons of “One Tree Hill” here. Two of the company’s 13 feature films set for 2013 release – “The Conjuring” and “We’re the Millers” – filmed here, while “Revolution,” an adventure thriller from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, will resume filming in the area in early January. “Conjuring” hits theaters July 19, while “Millers” premieres Aug. 9.
X-rays: Wilmington’s favorite superhero Robert Downey Jr. likely had them after he was injured in August while performing a stunt on set. The incident set back the production about eight weeks. After his recovery, the actor performed helicopter maneuvers amid machine-gun fire and smoke at the Port of Wilmington.
Young stars: A slew of talented young actors visited the Port City for this first time this year. Logan Lerman (“3:10 to Yuma”) and Nat Wolff (“The Naked Brothers Band”) appeared alongside Liana Liberato (“Trust”) and Lily Collins (“Mirror Mirror”) in “Stuck in Love.” Child star Mackenzie Foy (“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2”) played younger sister to Shanley Caswell (“Detention”), Hayley McFarland (“Lie to Me”) and Joey King (“Ramona and Beezus”) in “The Conjuring.” Will Poulter (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”), Emma Roberts (“Scream 4”) and Molly Quinn (“Castle”) played opposite Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis in “We’re the Millers.” Here’s to hoping Wilmywood made a good impression.
Zoppe: It had been nearly five years since Dennis Zoppe, a key grip, worked in Wilmington. Until now. In late 2011, the 59-year-old Wilmington resident left his post on Lifetime’s “Army Wives” in Charleston to come home to film “Arthur Newman,” a movie about a golf pro (Colin Firth) who’s trying to remake his life. Since then, the film work hasn’t stopped, Zoppe said. “Things heated up when the incentives passed, and now there’s work at home. Before that, the only thing in town was ‘One Tree Hill,’ ” he said. “I’ve been working steady all this year.” He started the year as rigging key on “The Conjuring” and finished it as key grip on the second unit of “Iron Man 3.” Among other shoots, his “Iron Man” crew staged explosions at the Port of Wilmington and filmed stunt crews dangling over the Cape Fear River downtown. “We got to do all the fun stuff. It was the biggest show I’ve ever worked on,” he said. The past year was so busy, Zoppe said, he had trouble finding a crew for the Marvel production. On the upside, he hired a few interns whom he helped learn the ropes. As for next year, the key grip says three or four projects should keep him afloat. “You’d love to go from one show to the next, but it rarely happens that way,” he said. “You really can’t tell you’re good until the production office opens and you’ve got that paycheck in your hand. Then you can say, ‘OK, I’ve got a job.’ ”
–Courtesy of the Star News