Thursday, September 21, 2006

Does this make anyone else nervous??

Mikaela cringes:

This from Businessweek (thanks for the heads up, David Sirota!):

New Mexico Banks On The Box Office

[New Mexico's fund that supports the public education system] has extended $130 million in financing to films shot in New Mexico, with more on the way.

...20% of its assets [will be put] into so-called alternative investments ... [including the film] Employee of the Month, which the state bankrolled to the tune of $13 million, as well as a slate of "soft-R" horror movies such as Living Hell and Buried Alive.

So far, the endowment has managed only to break even. An early venture, Elvis Has Left the Building, a 2004 comedy in which Kim Basinger plays a cosmetics saleswoman accused of killing Elvis impersonators, went straight to DVD.

...The state is providing filmmakers with loans that are guaranteed by investment-grade banks....

New Mexico has been raising the movie stakes of late, in part to spur a cottage industry. (In the past two years, filmmakers spent almost $98 million in the state, including pay for almost 2,100 crew jobs.) Since 2005 the state has allowed the endowment to lend up to $15 million to a film project, up from $7.5 million.

Due out next year, Wanted: Undead or Alive. Scripted by a South Park writer, it was presented to the council as "Blazing Saddles meets Shaun of the Dead," according to minutes from the meeting. Says Kulka: "I personally have high hopes."