"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]
