‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot to Start Shooting in Louisiana This September

 H. Shaw-Williams     

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Vancouver is a favorite shooting location for many film and TV studios, and Canada has been home to the productions of many of Twentieth Century Fox’s X-Men movies, including the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. Chronicle director Josh Trank’s reboot of Fox-owned Marvel property The Fantastic Four was all set to head north to Vancouver for the shoot, but the studio has now been tempted away by the state of Louisiana.
Plenty of factors go into the decision of where to shoot a movie, the most obvious one being the look and feel of the locations, but an equally pressing matter being one of budgeting. Luckily, there’s also a lot of incentive for local governments to offer tax breaks that will draw major productions in, as a big film shoot not only provides work for local crew, but also gives a general boost to the state’s economy, and later down the line can draw tourists to the filming locations.

The Wrap reports that Louisiana’s film production incentive program, which was nearly killed off in a bill that was stopped by the state’s lawmakers, has succeeded in drawing in The Fantastic Four in. Shooting schedules haven’t been officially confirmed yet, but the film is expected to begin production in September, and hopefully this means we’ll soon hear confirmations about the new cast members who will be playing the superhero team.
Girls star Allison Williams was in talks to play Sue Storm earlier this year, and Fruitvale Station lead Michael B. Jordan’s name has been floated as a possibility for Johnny Storm (you may remember that this sparked a little bit of debate), but nothing seems to be set in stone just yet.
Marvel fans in Vancouver who were hoping to catch a glimpse of the rebooted superhero team will no doubt be a little disappointed at hearing this news, but until specific locations are revealed, it’ll be difficult to judge whether the move will be beneficial to The Fantastic Four aesthetically.

An atmospheric Louisiana location in ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

At face value, the tax credits offered in Vancouver are actually more or less on par with those offered by the state of Louisiana. According to CreativeBC, productions shot in British Columbia receive a 33% tax credit for expenditures in local labor, with a 17.5% tax credit offered to studios who use British Columbia-based facilities and labor for digital animation or visual effects. Comparatively, government site Louisiana Entertainment offers a transferrable 30% tax credit on local expenditures and an additional 5% tax credit for the use of Louisiana labor.
Other films recently shot in Louisiana include Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. With the threat of the bill to cut incentives out of the way, there will hopefully be more productions heading to the state in the near future.
To all Screen Rant readers – but Louisiana and Vancouver residents in particular – how do you feel about this location move?
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The Fantastic Four hits theaters March 6th, 2015.
Source: The Wrap