Moving Hollywood to Coastal Georgia Could Mean Record Profits (288)
(NewsUSA) - Due to soaring labor costs and a weak tax credit structure, more movie producers and studios are flocking east to produce feature films.
"Over the past several years, Hollywood has become very expensive to produce movies," says Jake Shapiro, CEO of Medient Studios. "In my opinion, Georgia will be the new Hollywood."
According to Georgia.org, in 2013 alone, television networks, Hollywood studios, production companies and independent producers invested more than $3.3 billion in the state's film industry.
One of the most ambitious film projects in the state, let alone the nation, is Medient Studios, a 12-year-old production company that has leased a 1,560 acre property in Effingham County, Georgia, to build a "Studioplex." Medient Studios (OTC: MDNT) is building what many consider to be the most ambitious public/private partnership to date -- the property is approximately the same size as Central Park and will be home to over 2 million square feet of sound stages and post-production facilities.
Leading the way is Medient Studios' newly appointed CEO Shapiro. As an honors graduate of Rutgers University, the financier was critical in negotiating the original public/private partnership with Georgia, and he has a long history of capital formation for small- and mid-cap-sized companies.
"We are in the process of building an intellectual property factory," says Shapiro. "A factory serves two primary purposes -- to increase production and reduce costs. The Medient Studioplex in Georgia is disruptive to conventional Hollywood wisdom, whereby there is little to no alignment between the film investors and the producers who actually spend the money. By focusing on producing great content, with factory efficiencies, our team believes it can generate profit margins unheard of in the entertainment business."
For more information, visit www.medient.com.