Breaking: Michigan is Not Hollywood
"Evidence continues to mount that Michigan's budding film industry really was no such thing. Would-be moguls scatter as soon as a new governor deep-sixes the nation's leading incentive program because it amounts to cutting Hollywood checks for money spent here, not capital invested. Now a state-of-the-art studio backed by savvy businessmen with names like Al Taubman and John Rakolta is on track to miss payments to bondholders, often a fraught tripwire on the way to bankruptcy. Not much of an industry, that. Not if you understand the word to imply a modicum of permanent investment — the kind Taubman, Rakolta & Co. assumed with their backing of Raleigh Studios in Pontiac — instead of a traveling minstrel show partly financed by starstruck taxpayers." But! They'll always have 30 Minutes or Less. [The Detroit News]
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Daniel Howes is just afraid that all of this Hollywood influence will corrupt the good Christian values that he wants Michigan to be absorbed by. Plus, he feels obligated to take up a position that's counter to the position already taken by the Detroit Free Press (his employer's main competition), which is that Michigan likes the film industry and wants to improve the hack job that Snyder did in attempting to shut it down (not unlike a prohibition agent shutting down a speakeasy). Funny thing is, Snyder still thinks that Pure Michigan (his pet money drainer) will do more to expose Michigan to the world than the film industry (even though Ides of March just got an Oscar nod for best screenplay, so it's likely that more people will watch Ides of March than will ever see a Pure Michigan ad).