A golden age of South Florida moviemaking is upon us, but experts don't expect it to last much longer. In fact, they give it about seven more weeks.
That's when dramatic cuts to Florida's film subsidies take effect, hollowing out a $25 million fund credited with making 2008 a banner year for both production work and celebrity sightings.
Broward and Miami-Dade counties report a record number of movie and television productions since 2007, double the decade's last high-water mark. Film offices point to about $50 million in local spending from the productions in both counties this year. But with only $5 million to dole out for projects shooting after July 1, local film offices are bracing for lean times.
''The studios and even the big independents can't ignore the incentives they can get elsewhere,'' said Elizabeth Wentworth, who recruits productions for the Broward Alliance, the county's economic development arm. ``Next year all of our figures are going to be way down. We can count on not getting anything major.''
That would be a big switch from the current crop of A-Listers in town to film.
Miami became a major paparazzi battleground two weeks ago when singer John Mayer arrived for a romantic weekend with Jennifer Aniston. She settled into an extended Miami stay for her starring role in Marley & Me, a movie set in South Florida and slated to receive $1.6 million in state subsidies in exchange for spending nearly $11 million locally.
Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger also were spotted killing time in South Beach between location shoots in South Florida this spring.
Their movies (I Love You Phillip Morris and Chilled in Miami) were based elsewhere, but cash incentives helped lure producers to shoot some scenes in South Florida, said Jeff Peel, director of Miami-Dade's film office.
''Jim Carrey would not be here without an incentive,'' Peel said. ``That's the way these things are done.''
LATE TO THE GAME
Florida entered the film subsidy wars late, offering producers nothing as recently as five years ago. Other states, notably Louisiana, New Mexico and South Carolina, have been helping pay production costs as a way to lure both big-budget features and television shows their way.
This week, the Los Angeles Times reported ABC was moving its hit Ugly Betty show from Los Angeles to the Big Apple to take advantage of New York's beefed-up $65 million incentive program.
A top executive at Burn Notice, a drama set in Miami awarded about $4.2 million in state subsidies, said the cable show would have filmed elsewhere if not for the cash.
''That is unequivocal,'' said Bob Lemchen, vice president of scripted programming for Fox Television Studios, which produces the show for the USA cable network. ``You'll notice the other two shows on television set in Miami -- CSI: Miami and Dexter -- don't shoot in Miami.''
SUBSIDIES PUSHED JUMP
Florida's program launched in 2004 with a meager $2.4 million fund, and by 2006 it had grown to $20 million.
The $25 million budget for the current fiscal year -- which ends June 30 -- coincided with a surge in South Florida productions: Miami-Dade said 46 movies requested permits in that time, up from 21 in 2005 and four in 2003.
But lawmakers, facing a $4 billion budget shortfall amid a statewide real estate meltdown, pulled back the subsidies amid widespread cost cutting.
Though Florida's film office contends productions generate spending worth seven times their subsidy amounts, ''it's kind of tough to be up there lobbying when the person in front of you is trying to secure money for their Meals on Wheels,'' said Robert Parente, head of Miami's film office. ``You feel sheepish.''
Florida will reimburse 15 percent of the money movies and television shows spend in Florida, with a 5 percent bonus available for productions filming during hurricane season. Family-friendly projects (no swearing, no sex and no smoking) also qualify for another 2 percent rebate.
The region seemed to have little problem attracting production work before the state subsidy program. Movies linked to Miami -- The Birdcage, Scarface, There'sSomething About Mary -- paid their own way, as did the Miami Vice television series and 2005 film.
But the spread of film incentives this decade will leave Florida at a disadvantage in what state film commissioner Lucia Fishburne called a ``commodities game.''
''Of course, people are going to go where it can make the biggest difference in their bottom lines,'' she said.
As the only major Florida show returning for a second season, Burn Notice gets first priority for next year's $5 million fund and considers its subsidies secure. But should there be no government money for the second half of 2009, agent Michael Westen may find himself leaving his Coconut Grove environs for elsewhere.
''Our worry is Season Three,'' Lemchen said. ``This is a very bad thing for us.''
Audio | Interview with Jeff Peel, director of Miami-Dade Office of Film and Entertainment