Michigan.

Yeah, I know, that by itself it just the Grand Bull Moose Award winner for biggest ZOMG! moment, but no, Michigan is looking to be the next Hollywood, and it’s getting some results.

Being as close to Michigan as I am–got a lot of family there–there’s a lot that needs to be done.  Michigan has suffered a lot of crippling economic blows over the last few years, and so has the rest of the area.  Gas prices skyrocketing, layoffs, factory closures, and a litany of horrible economic news actually dropped Michigan’s economy down BELOW New Orleans’ at one point, and they’d been hit by a hurricane.

It was downright scary–like having a horror movie going on full time.

But then, Michigan started wondering what it could do to get some cash back in the state, and the answer came in roughly 2005 when a cast of marginal actors and assorted has-beens descended on Michigan to film the movie “Kalamazoo?”

Check out the word from Studio Briefing:

Michigan’s recent enactment of bills aimed at using tax incentives to lure filmmakers may also result in a studio building boom in the state. The Grand Rapids Press reported on Tuesday that Los Angeles-based V-One Entertainment Group, which says that it provides “infrastructure” for film companies, is planning to build sound stages and install production facilities in three locations around the state. It is headed by David O’Malley, who directed a 2006 film titled Kalamazoo? that was filmed entirely in Kalamazoo, MI. (Despite a cast that included Claire Bloom, Chita Rivera, Renee Taylor, and Dee Wallace Stone, the film was released in only five theaters — including one in Kalamazoo — and grossed just $53,609.

Considering that the kind of fire-sale incentives that Governor Jennifer Granholm was offering made the Elbonians in Dilbert look like prima donnas (no taxes, cheerful slave labor, no environmental policy, and amnesty from any inconvenient laws!  here, take my firstborn son as a lawn ornament!), this news isn’t surprising but it’s plenty good.  Michigan could definitely use an economic shot in the arm, and the movies just might be the industry to do it.

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