Clint Eastwood to Make Michigan a Star

Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a tax incentive earlier this month to help attract movie studios to consider filming here in Michigan.  Clint Eastwood has shown an interest in bring his latest project to the Great Lakes State.

Warner Bros. announced that the 78 year old actor-director will star in and direct “Gran Torino” due to release in December of 2008.  The location has not been finalized, but word of Michigan being considered for the location came from Minnesota TV station WCCO announced that Minnesota would be bypassed for the films location because of its 15% tax credit hardly compared with the new Michigan tax credit of 42% for any movie shot here.

Rumor has it that “Gran Torino” will be considered the sixth “Dirty Harry” movie, knowing that Harry main ride was a ’72 Gran Torino in the 1973 block buster sequel “Magnum Force”

There has been speculation that “Gran Torino” will be the sixth “Dirty Harry” entry — Harry drove a ’72 Gran Torino in 1973’s “Magnum Force,” the first “Harry” sequel — though the smarter money says it will involve Eastwood’s character befriending a Hmong family in a small Minnesota town.

I can’t see how they can make big block buster movies so fast, a July shoot and a December release seems very quick.  Clint has been know for cranking out movies on time and on budget.  “Million Dollar Baby” was Eastwood’s baby winning the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004.  It’s likely that a Dirty Harry movie will not be considered for an Oscar, but the exposure to Michigan with the likes of Clint Eastwood will not hurt at all.

Currently no less than 90 movie scripts are being considered for shooting in Michigan.  The biggest movie to date begins shooting next month in Grand Rapids, titled “The Fifth Mafia”, with Ray Liotta and James Van Der Beek

Tim Somers
MichiganBusinessHub.com