I’ve never seen the show, but I’m curious as to what’ll happen with the ABC cop drama Detroit 187 when our newly elected Governor makes good on his campaign promise to end Michigan’s generous tax incentives for the film industry. Will they cancel the show? Or, will they just go to the state with the next highest reimbursement rate, which, if I’m reading the chart correctly, is Oklahoma… Which, I think, might be a pretty good premise for a show… I’d watch a show about a band of mercenary homicide detectives that change their base of operations each season based upon their desire to capitalize on the misery of states like ours that have to bribe production companies with huge financial incentives.
On the subject of tax incentives and other ploys to draw businesses from elsewhere, I’m generally against them. I’d much rather invest our dollars on local people with demonstrated ability to create jobs. With that said, though, I saw firsthand what the film industry did in Baltimore, and I think it could be an incredible thing for Detroit, if we were able to hold on long enough to build some kind of permanent infrastructure here. And, as dopey as it sounds, it was kind of good for morale to have Drew Barrymore walking around Ypsi, even if it was just for a week or two.
[note: If you’re interested, we had a good discussion about tax incentives and the like way back when, in a thread about Michael Shuman.]
8 Comments
On the show, the main character is a New Yorker whose transported himself to Detroit. I don’t know that they ever explained why. Maybe he has a life partner that works in the film industry. If not, they could add someone in a role like that. I could see someone like David Cross playing an ambitious grip.
I’d love an excuse to see David Cross in those Daisy Dukes that he wore in Arrested Development again, and I think he’d make the transition to drama pretty easily. It could even be the same character- Tobias Funke.
Snyder should create jobs by, instead of appealing to the film industry, put out the world that Michigan is open for Dollar Store business! Seriously, we haven’t even begun to approach saturation. My town only has five.
The show could keep the same name and be filmed anywhere. They could easily “Detroit-ify” a block or two of any American city with a couple sticks of dynamite and a bus full of crack heads.
Snyder also thinks that he can govern from Ann Arbor. I think he’s in for one hell of a rude awakening.
In the last episode of the series, an actor looking like Rick Snyder should come in and blow the entire homicide department away.
Maybe we could keep the show even if the tax incentives go away by making the cast our actual Detroit homicide squad. We’d save a lot of money by firing the guys we’ve got, and the actors couldn’t do much worse when it comes to closing cases.
I once had an idea to do an entire mall of dollar stores. I was going to call it The Dollar Store Mall.