Written by on Jan 18, 2012. Posted in Incentive News

Spielberg’s Robopocalypse decides against Michigan filming after incentives change

The filming incentives shake-up in Michigan has resulted in big-budget feature Robopocalypse going elsewhere. Steven Spielberg’s upcoming directing project was asking for incentive payments that would have accounted for most of Michigan’s annual film fund.

Michigan's film fund was cut to just USD25 million in 2011, but Robopocalypse was looking for some USD24 million in incentive payments. Figures from the Michigan Film Office seen by the Detroit Free Press for the second half of 2011 show a drop of well over 50% in the number of projects applying for incentive support compared to the same period in 2010; most of the USD25 million fund had already been allocated by early October.

I think that our next quarterly report will show a very different story. We've got world-class infrastructure, we've got a skilled and talented work force and we've got diverse locations.

Carrie Jones, Michigan Film Office

Carrie Jones is Director of the Michigan Film Office and spoke to the outlet: “I think that our next quarterly report will show a very different story. We've got world-class infrastructure, we've got a skilled and talented work force and we've got diverse locations. We also have a competitive incentive programme. Michigan still is on the map for producers.”

Robopocalypse will be an adaptation of a 2011 dystopian sci-fi novel. The film was the second high-profile loss for Michigan in 2011, after Iron Man 3 chose to film in North Carolina instead, as Michigan couldn’t meet its USD34 million credits request.

(Main page image copyright: Shawn Wilson)