There’s been some scuttlebutt floating around the web over the last few days that Christopher Nolan has made the decision to dump Chicago as his surrogate Gotham City to instead shoot ‘Batman 3‘ in New Orleans, where the tax breaks will make for a cheaper shoot.
Of course, I’m not buying it. After ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Inception’ made nearly $1.8 billion in box office returns alone, WB aren’t concerned over how much ‘Batman 3′ is going to cost to make. Nolan will have no less than $250 million-300 million, if he wants it.
The bottom line is ‘Batman 3′ will shoot wherever Chris Nolan wants it to shoot. If that’s New Orleans for some scenes then of course it’ll shoot there. But New Orleans won’t substitute Chicago’s version of Gotham. Oh, and that April shoot date rumour is a good a guess as any other. The cast have been told to keep May-onwards of 2011 free on their schedule, so take that for what you will.
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9 Comments
“WB aren’t concerned over how much ‘Batman 3′ is going to cost.”
Film executives are always concerned about how much something is going to cost. Even if it makes a billion dollars, if they can find ways to save and thus make even more money they’ll do it. They’re the most greedy bastards on the planet, even above politians.
True, of course. But Nolan has the blank chequebook at WB second only to James Cameron at Fox.
I’d LOVE to see Nolan and crew come down here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. However, like Mr Brooks and other films they have to shoot a lot of exteriors and such in Chicago because the exteriors they’d want simply don’t exist down here –thank you redneck leaders for never developing the damned place!!!!!
I don’t know how much it cost to shoot in Chicago, but I don’t think Illinois gives tax breaks so that right there inflates the cost of Dark Knight. And no studio WANTS their budgets to be ever-increasing, no matter how much a franchise may make. They’re always looking or a way to control costs. Louisiana’s tax breaks are still among the most competitive in the nation.
Hope they give it a try.
JaySmack,
Not to turn this into a political discussion but you said a lack of Illinois tax-breaks inflated the cost of production. Inflated? Competitive tax breaks increase the cost to local residents, thus reducing the benefit or even eliminating the benefit of the production all together. They don’t inflate the production costs. Naturally, filming in Chicago is more expensive then somewhere like New Orleans. You get what you pay for, and sometimes paying more means you get more. And the Dark Knight needs the Chicago cityscape.
I understand your bias. Having a Batman film made in your home town is pretty cool.
I see what you’re getting at, however my point had nothing to do with who pays for the tax breaks rather who benefits.
Simply put, Illinois has no tax breaks (at least not that I know of) and that means shooting there costs more than places with a tax break incentive. That’s all I was saying.
Of course tax breaks increase costs, that’s why not everyone offers them, and those who do frequently re-adjust them as the demands of their state budgets require, but the trade off is that movies and TV shows shooting in an area spread a LOT of money around very quickly. It’s hardly a zero-sum game. In lousisiana area businesses benefit greatly, so long as the production tries to draw off the local area. Louisiana’s tax-credit program is structured so as to incentivize productions to use as much local people and materials as possible. It works.
Criticism of tax breaks often comes from canadian and Floridians who don’t like the “gypsy” nature of hollywood, particularly that they pick up tent and jet out of your country/town in a heartbeat if they think they can get a better deal elsewhere. This makes those who used tax breaks to attract films feel burned afterwards.
That however shouldn’t sour anyone on tax breaks for movies. It depends on whether those hosting the movies are smart enough to realize they should use the movies as much as the movies use them. You can’t complain if you let hundreds of millions of dollars come into your state and you don’t take advantage of the people bringing it.
The main villain in Batman 3 should be The Riddler and The Penguin, Black Mask and Rupert Thorne should be secondary villains. NO Catwoman or Robin, NOT EVER. In addition, I hope Christian Bale has at least two love interests who are played by Hollywood’s most beautiful young actresses and that Batman 3 has a larger all-star cast with many recognisable actors making cameo appearances. This will be the biggest movie of 2012. Christopher Nolan is the undisputed best and greatest director in the world.
The great thing about the batman movies is that most of it actually feels real without tons of phony sets and phony locations.
I think at best it could shoot partially in New Orleans. The action and chase scenes fit too perfectly in Chicago to go anywhere else.
It’s not about budget, it’s about bang for the buck. The film will obviously come in around 200mil+. However 200mil in Louisiana goes farther than it does in Illinois (or most other states for that matter). There is a reason why New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and the rest of the state has seen a huge swing in productions over the last decade. Between crew, tax incentives, weather, and facilities Louisiana is a lot more attractive than most other places. Unless the script demands shooting in a very specific location New Orleans is sufficient. That being said, the last two films were shot heavily in both Chicago and the UK. Most stage locations were shot in England and virtually all of post production took place in the UK as well. Not to mention the weeks spent in Hong Kong on the Dark Knight. Nolan and Batman will shoot were they can get the most for their money if that means stages in Louisiana, exteriors/ stunts in Chicago, and prep/ post in UK than that will make this film no different than the majority of Hollywood big budget movies.
And yes Illinois has tax incentives for productions.