Arizona to reopen the state’s film office after 6-year break
Dec 5, 2016, 7:12 AM | Updated: 10:47 am
PHOENIX — Arizona is getting back into the movie business.
“Historically the film industry brings money into the area,” said Matthew Earl Jones. He will be directing the new Arizona Office of Film and Media.
“The film industry has been, and I believe will again, a very vibrant contributor to the Arizona economy,” he said.
Already a few movies were recently shot in Arizona, such as “Transformers 5” and “Furious 7,” which Jones, brother of Tony- and Emmy- winning actor James Earl Jones, said he worked on.
Arizona gained a lot of attention inn the 1990s for being the site of movies such as “Tombstone,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Thelma and Louise,” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
Jones says much of the renewed interest can be chalked up to Sneaky Big, a state-of-the-art studio in Scottsdale, owned by GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons.
“A world-class facility that is now here,” he said. “So that anyone from any place in the world could come to that facility and could do their work.”
There’s a ripple effect of any kind of business coming into the area and employing people and spending money, he said.
Arizona had been like several other states that attempted to lure movies away from Hollywood and to their studios by offering tax breaks.
Now that California also offers tax breaks, Jones says that ship has sailed. Arizona’s Studio 48 agency will focus more on private businesses.
“I personally am going to reach out to the business community, to those industries that benefit from the film industry,” he said, “and see if we can’t strike some strategic partnerships.”