New Mexico: Film hot spot on the mend

Lone Ranger

Variety - A 90-minute flight from Los Angeles. An average of 300 days a year of sunshine. A 25% tax rebate. For 10 years, that combination -- along with a responsive film office headed up by a longtime locations expert -- helped transform New Mexico into one of the country's hot spots for filmmaking. What could go wrong? A lot, as it turns out. The state remains sunny and easily accessed, but when Republican Susana Martinez succeded Democrat Bill Richardson as governor in January 2011, the state's position on facilitating film production changed significantly. The film office's budget was slashed, director Lisa Strout fired and her position left vacant for six months. Then the legislature opted to tweak the no-cap rebate, making it tiered and, to Hollywood's eyes, complicated. Suddenly, New Mexico was a virtual desert. "This is so much a word-of-mouth business," says Eric Witt, Richardson's former deputy chief of staff. "There's absolutely no doubt that the state has a hole to dig itself out of in terms of reputation." Read More News New Mexico

New Mexico: Film hot spot on the mend