Sacramento proposes incentives to bring more Hollywood productions to town
SACRAMENTO — The City of Sacramento is trying to lure more Hollywood filmmakers to shoot on location here.
Sacramento filmmaker Aaron Leong has directed several feature films, including "Notorious Nick." He is pitching a new Sacramento-based movie he wants to make here and is hopeful the city will award him incentives.
"I think we're going to have to talk to the city and talk to the film office to see what our options are as far as applying for these funds," he said.
The city's film office is proposing giving $250,000 in reimbursements to film crews, including full reimbursement for money spent on hiring police, fire, parking and film permit fees.
The move comes six years after the hit "Lady Bird" was shot in Sacramento. It won a Golden Globe for best film in 2017.
It's an effort to get California's capital city on the map for film production in the United States. According to SetHero, the top five on that list as of 2021 are Atlanta, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Austin and Chicago.
"I'm getting ready to do the Dorothea Puente story, so hopefully we can try to keep it here in Sacramento because right now, we have people in Vancouver that want me to take it there," said Sacramento native Nick Leisure.
Leisure is also a director of A-list stars. He's working to bring a Hollywood-style studio to Cal Expo.
"So inside on sets, our initial studio phase one, I think, is about 40 acres, and then we're going to expand about 165 acres," he said. "So we're hoping to keep something that's contained that can create a real Hollywood-style film studio."
"Lady Bird" is Sacramento's one recent shining story of Hollywood success. Its production added a million dollars to the city's economy.
Sacramento is still trying to build on that bling. The city's Arts, Culture and Creative Economy Commission will be discussing the new film production incentives next week.
