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The Hollywood of the South: Shreveport, Louisiana
By: Paul McIndoe
The sleepy southern state of Louisiana is now ranked as the third most prolific film producing region in the USA, with only California and New York pumping out a greater volume of films; so it's perhaps not surprising that it has earned the name 'Hollywood South', sometimes abbreviated to 'HoSo'.
The film studio Millennium Films recently set up base in Shreveport, further strengthening the industry. Recent films to be made at the studio include: 'The Cleaner' starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris and Eva Mendes, which follows a crime scene cleaner who gets caught up in a murder cover-up, and then joins the widow of the victim to attempt to catch the killers. 'The Mist', a horror film based on Stephen King's 1980 novella of the same name was another major film to be made in Shreveport. The plot follows a small-town community that comes under attack from a variety of strange creatures after un-naturally thick fog envelopes the town.
One of the reasons why Louisiana is so attractive to film makers is the price; by offering generous tax incentives, the state has managed to lure production teams away from more well known film-making locations. Previously, New Orleans overshadowed other cities in the region as a hub for movie making, but the devastating effect of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 forced producers to look for alternatives close by, and Shreveport became the new hub. The ubiquitous nature of Shreveport has been the key to its success: its beautiful old homes and generic streets mean that it can double as almost any city in the USA - a valuable asset in the world of movie making.
Actors and actresses working in Shreveport have also praised the Southern hospitality they have been show by the locals, and the fact that the paparazzi seem to be less of a problem in 'HoSo'. Movie fans are overjoyed to be seeing big names walking their streets, and can sometimes be seen waiting outside hotels in Shreveport, hoping for a glimpse of their favourite movie star - they are usually not disappointed.
Even five years ago, to hear names like Samuel L. Jackson or Meg Ryan mentioned in the same sentence as Shreveport would have been unheard of. Few believed that the city would ever be more than a sleepy southern settlement. But now, everybody, from the New York Post to the LA Times are talking about Shreveport, with major film makers and Hollywood stars continuing to head south to 'HoSo'. |