The Good and Bad of Louisiana's Movie Biz

It's been pretty cool to be able to say that Diane Lane, Kevin Spacey and Christopher Walken have all been in the Bayou State recently filming movies, and Jack Egan with Variety magazine reports that the huge tax incentives are what's bringing the industry to our state. They note that while we give up 30% in incentives, Louisiana is the 3rd most used shooting location, next to New York and California. And, the industry has help create 6,230 full- and part-time jobs statewide, with employment in the sector has been growing at a sizzling compound annual rate of 22% from 2001 to 2007. In 2007, $429 million in direct production spending translated into $763 million poured into the state economy.

However, as Variety also notes in this seperate article also by Jack Egan, two unrelated incidences of bribary and scandal have put a black eye on the program. The most famous of the scandals included a couple of New Orleans Saints players. You can check out the full story here.