Plans At The ‘Other’ Closed State Mental Hospital—

Connecticut Targets Film Industry

To Diversify Economy

By Stephen Singer

Associated Press

PRESTON — The vacant windows in the empty buildings, frozen and hardened weeds sagging in the winter air and cracked and crumbling parking lots and walkways could almost pass for the set of a horror movie.

Time has passed by the abandoned century-old Norwich State Hospital complex, shuttered for a decade.

Lately, however, the deserted property for the one-time mental hospital has been the scene for negotiations between Utopia Studios of Melville, N.Y., and the town of Preston, a community of 4,700 about 45 miles east of Hartford. Utopia is seeking to build a massive entertainment complex, including movie studios.

The proposal, coupled with a new effort by Governor M. Jodi Rell and leaders of the General Assembly to provide tax credits for film productions, is bringing new attention to the prospect of moviemaking in southern New England.

Connecticut is trying to catch up to tax incentives already offered by Massachusetts and Rhode Island that are designed to lure studios to the area.

Major feature films can costs tens of millions to make. Studios operate crews of several dozen people, who eat at local restaurants, stay at hotels or motels, put gas in their cars and hire local caterers and other services.

“There isn’t a filmmaker today who doesn’t look for the right tax deal. You can’t afford not to,” said Howard Baldwin, a Los Angeles-based producer whose films include the Oscar-winning Ray, the 2004 biopic of Ray Charles.

Joseph Gentile, chief financial officer of Utopia, appeared recently with Connecticut House Speaker James Amann to back proposed legislation for tax credits of 25 percent of the cost of production for investors and 30 percent for production companies.

“I think it’s a wonderful incentive program,” Gentile said. “It certainly helps smaller filmmakers. We have the relationships.”

Rell on Wednesday submitted her own proposal, offering a 25 percent production tax credit that would be capped at $5 million per production.

Connecticut is no stranger to film making. Mr Deeds, The Ice Storm and Mystic Pizza were in-state productions. In addition, ESPN, World Wrestling Entertainment and Outdoor Life Network operate in Connecticut.

What’s different is a drive to bring numerous types of productions — TV commercials, educational films, documentaries and the like — even if they are less lucrative and well known than box office hits.

State officials were motivated in part by the threatened closing last year of Groton’s submarine base, which prompted officials to question the diversification of Connecticut’s economy, said Jennifer Aniskovich, executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

In addition, the Utopia project and another studio and entertainment proposal in North Stonington “raised the very public question” of how desirable Connecticut is as a filming location, Aniskovich said.

The 419-acre Utopia project proposes a “studio campus,” Gentile said. It would include production facilities, a school of the arts and entertainment parks.

The North Stonington proposal, collaborating with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, calls for production studios, retail space, restaurants and hotels and a Science and Entertainment Center and Multimedia Complex. The plan also would train and mentor aspiring actors, writers, producers and directors.

“We’re getting a lot of support. We’d like to be here and do this,” said Georgette Smart, chief executive of North Stonington Studios.

Backers of a strong film presence in Connecticut cite the state’s proximity to New York, which after Hollywood provides the greatest access to marketing and production.

And many Los Angeles-based producers, writers and others are originally from the East.

“It’s more of a homecoming for many of us than it is a displacement,” Gentile said.