'Gone Girl' inspires lawmaker to revive film tax credits

While "Gone Girl" may be a fictitious story, the effect it's had on Cape Girardeau is real.

Last fall, crowds flocked to downtown to take a peek at the stars filming near the Common Pleas Courthouse, the old federal building on Broadway and The Bar on Spanish Street. While many stood on the outside looking in, other locals had the opportunity to participate in the filming as extras.

The city not only offered its scenic views and accommodating public for the 20th Century Fox film, it also offered businesses and restaurants that provided the crews with props, supplies and food.

While many admit the opportunity was a rare one, especially for a small riverside town such as Cape Girardeau, groups and individuals around the state are working to promote Missouri as an ideal location for future documentaries, feature movies and short films.

Rep. Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, said she already has been approached by out-of-towners asking for directions to locations where "Gone Girl" filming took place. The scheduled release date for the film, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, is Oct. 3.

This enthusiasm and the additional interest the film brought to the state and the area are part of the reasons Swan sponsored legislation last year to renew the state's Film Production Tax Credit Program, which hit its sunset date in November.

The program began in 1999 and offered tax credits to film productions for up to 35 percent of their in-state expenditures. Production companies qualified if they had a $100,000 in-state budget for films longer than 30 minutes or $50,000 for films shorter than 30 minutes. The program had a $4.5 million cap.

Preliminary expenditures released by Missouri's Department of Economic Development revealed "Gone Girl's" total expenditures, not including payroll, equaled $2,981,228. Total tax credits to be issued to 20th Century Fox came to $894,368. That number equaled 30 percent of the production's in-state expenses.

Swan's bill was not among the 190 passed by the General Assembly during the 2014 legislative session, but the representative said she intends to resubmit the bill for next year. She's made adjustments to it and continues taking suggestions from other legislators before she prefiles the bill in December. Most of the changes were made after comparing Missouri's program to other states and aiming for the middle, she said.

The newest proposal would offer tax credits for film productions for up to 20 percent of qualifying in-state expenses, 10 percent for qualifying out-of-state expenses and an additional 5 percent for qualifying expenses in and out of the state, on the condition 50 percent of the filming takes place in-state. Swan's proposal also requires the film indicate that filming took place in Missouri.

"[The state is] probably more in the market for documentaries to be produced here or shorter films, probably fewer 20th Century Fox-type productions and more of the other types of filming," Swan said. "We still want to be considered a player in that market, so, therefore, you do what the market demands and what the market can bear. You don't want to provide the greatest incentive and you don't want to provide the lowest incentive, because you will never be considered for business in the future. So that's why we decided to go sort of middle-of-the-road as other states have done."

The biggest criticisms of film tax-credit programs focus on return on investment. State Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, said in a previous interview with the Southeast Missourian he didn't believe the state received sufficient return from the program.

"You have to look at it like you're running a business. If there's not enough of a product being bought, you get rid of it," he said.

But when a state lands a major motion film, it does have the power to bring significant economic change. Research company Tourism Competitive Intelligence found in 2012 that 40 million international tourists chose their destinations primarily because of a film they saw that was shot in that country.

"Field of Dreams" was filmed 25 years ago. But according to The Des Moines Register, an estimated 7,000 tourists visit to the small town of Dyersville, Iowa, each year to see the mythical baseball field. It's a rough estimate because there's no admission charge, and not every tourist signs the guest book.

Fans of zombie lore similarly have flocked to Senoia, Georgia, to participate in the "Walking Dead" tour.

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau offers online and paper brochures of an driving tour that takes visitors past local places that will appear in "Gone Girl." A map of the tour is available at visitcape.com/gonegirl or at the bureau's office at 400 Broadway.

The Missouri Film Office is working to increase interest in the state and encourage more filming opportunities by launching a new program. The Missouri Stories Scriptwriting Fellowship is a nationwide competition for screenplays and TV pilot scripts with story lines set in Missouri.

Three scripts will be chosen, and winning writers will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Missouri to work with industry mentors and visit the areas of the state where the scripts are set. Among those mentors is Bob Gale, writer and producer of the "Back to the Future" trilogy, who grew up in University City, Missouri. Missouri Stories Scriptwriting Fellowship is accepting submissions from Oct. 1 through Nov. 28, with forms available at MoFilm.org/MoStories.

The state has plenty to offer filmmakers, and Swan said she hopes those in the industry continue to see Missouri as an option for film locations. When visiting the "Gone Girl" set last year, the representative said producer Cean Chaffin said how impressed she was by the city and its people.

"She told me, 'You have something very special here, in this town and in this state,'" said Swan. "And we sometimes take this for granted. We know that we're a hardworking people. We demand accountability, we believe in providing a good day's work for the pay that we receive and we're genuine people. ... And I think she found that very, very rewarding to get to know all of us and was incredibly appreciative of the work ethic we have and our values system."

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

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Cape Girardeau, Mo.