am delighted to report

that more motion pictures could be heading to Alabama next year.

Alabama Film & Television Alliance Director George Caldwell and I spent five days

huddling with Southern California film

executives last week discussing possibilities and options available to our state.

We met film producers and directors, sound and audio executives, and key

decision makers in the industry. We hit pay dirt!

One major studio and two medium

companies have committed to come to Alabama by next August if we can provide an attractive incentive package.

The reason is simply dollars and cents. Currently some ten

billion dollars of Hollywood work is leaving America every year because of higher costs and higher taxes.

Most studio executives look first at Canada because of its lower taxes before they go anywhere else. But moving up

quickly are the countries of New Zealand, and even now Romania.

Most folks don’t know that the ESPN film called &uot;Junction Boys&uot; about Bear Bryant was filmed in Australia.

Hollywood is tired of traveling overseas and they are looking for greener pastures here. If we can provide an attractive tax incentive package, I am now convinced they will come in mass to Alabama.

As a result of our trip to California, we are now in a position to not only make more movies here,

but also plant an entire

industry that could bring us over a billion

new dollars and thousands of new jobs in the next ten years.

It is an unbelievable opportunity for Alabama in a time when we need every

dollar we can find. As for me, I intend to make it happen and make Alabama the Southern Hollywood.

Lights! Camera! Action