Last Nail In The Coffin For Dreams Of Hollywood East
Something positively reeks about the Patrick Administration’s decision to effectively axe the state’s stunningly successful film office czar, Nicholas Paleologos.
A veteran producer (Mississippi Burning) who also knew his way around Beacon Hill, Paleologos turned Massachusetts into a favorite destination for Hollywood moguls to shoot their films.
But last year, at the height of his success, with a bevy of blockbusters from “Knight and Day” to the “The Social Network” shooting on locations across the Bay State, a self-inflicted disaster struck.
Faced with a budget crisis, Gov. Patrick proposed slashing incentives used to entice movies and film to Massachusetts.
Paleologos was not shy in pushing back, working his old legislative connections – he is a former state representative – to defeat the plan.
But he also warned the uncertainty the Patrick Administration’s cutback proposal would create among Hollywood decision makers over the status of the Bay State’s incentives - were they coming or going - could prove as damaging.
And as I reported in my weekly B&T column on Nov. 15th, Paleologos proved to be dead right, with the number of sizable productions shot here in the Bay State collapsing overnight from roughly 12 last year to just one in 2010. (In fact, it’s not a movie but a TV show.)
For what it’s worth, the sudden demise of our once highly successful film industry is just now getting picked up by other local media outlets – another reason it pays to read B&T, but no matter.
Now Paleologos finds himself being broomed out altogether, his office being folded into another agency.
That’s his reward, I guess, for being right. If this isn’t old time Beacon Hill petty revenge, well then what is?
John Dukakis, a Hill Holliday ad executive and son former Gov. Michael Dukakis, is being brought on to head a committee that will chart a new course for the now gutted Massachusetts Film Office.
Good luck to him.