Written by on Jul 26, 2011. Posted in Incentive News

The Dark Knight Rises fails to qualify for Pittsburgh location filming incentives

The Dark Knight Rises won’t be getting any cash back for its upcoming Pittsburgh shoot through the state incentive scheme. Pittsburgh will be doubling for Gotham City but productions must spend at least 60% of their total budget in the city to qualify for the incentive.

With the film shooting extensively in the UK and other locations around the world it seems its Pennsylvania production spend won't be high enough. It seems though that the look of Pittsburgh has been more important than the finances.

A franchise as prestigious as Batman opens our region up to an entirely new audience as filmmakers and studio executives experience south-western Pennsylvania.

Dawn Keezer, Pittsburgh Film Office

Chicago doubled for Gotham in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It’s not completely clear why Pittsburgh has been chosen this time, although the new Superman film, which Christopher Nolan is also involved with, is reportedly doubling Chicago for Metropolis in the coming weeks.

Dawn Keezer, Director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, recently commented: “A single film can mean millions of dollars and many local jobs. A franchise as prestigious as Batman opens our region up to an entirely new audience as filmmakers and studio executives experience south-western Pennsylvania.”

Pittsburgh authorities will be hopeful that the very visible Batman shoot will encourage more big-budget productions to film in the city. Chicago has done well from hosting both the Batman and Transformers franchises.