DES MOINES | Iowa has hit the refresh button on its efforts to nurture media productions in the state.
Once the darling of the film industry with its best-in-the-nation state tax credits, Iowa suffered a setback and embarrassment five years ago when the program came unraveled, taking down a number of filmmakers and state officials with it.
The state is in rebuilding mode.
“I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve found,” said Liz Gilman, executive director of Produce Iowa, who was brought on board in May 2013. She runs the new office in the state Department of Cultural Affairs that took the place of the defunct Iowa Film Office.
Iowa currently is the backdrop for "The Summerland Project," an independent film being shot in Cedar Rapids with a cast that includes Kate Vernon, Ed Begley Jr., Angela Billman and Debra Wilson.
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The western Iowa town of Elk Horn rose to rock-star status in Denmark thanks to a one-hour documentary called “Denmark on the Prairie.” It aired last fall on Danish television.
The documentary featured the small rural community’s proud Danish heritage and old-world traditions. That brought a popular Danish cooking show to Iowa and plans for a follow-up documentary.
American TV shows such as “West End Salvage” in Des Moines or “American Pickers” in Le Claire have been successful ventures, and national advertising agencies have used Iowa as locations for commercial shoots. Gilman said that a network television show will be coming to Iowa next month.
The debacle that surrounded Iowa’s film credit program is becoming a fading memory.
Iowa recently agreed to pay slightly more than $2 million to settle claims for transferable tax credits brought for three movie projects: “Lucky,” "When September Ends" and "Underground."
That brought the state payout to nearly $12 million to settle disputes. Those arose when the state suspended and then closed the program after a state audit released in October 2010 turned up $26 million in credits that were improperly issued by the Iowa Department of Economic Development.
Created by the Legislature in 2007, the state film tax credit program provided a 25 percent tax credit for production expenditures made in Iowa and a 25 percent tax credit for investors for projects that spent at least $100,000 in Iowa.
Former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver suspended the program in September 2009 after employees raised concerns credits were being issued for the purchase of luxury vehicles that were later taken to California for personal use.
After the scandal broke, six DED employees lost their jobs, including former Iowa Film Office manager Tom Wheeler. Wheeler was one of seven people who have been convicted of criminal charges.
The bad experience prompted Iowa to drop out of the competition to offer tax credits like more than 40 other states and Canada do.
Now, with more than a year under her belt, Gilman is ramping up the effort by touting produceiowa.com as a clearinghouse for media production information.
“A lot of people come here, and they’re really impressed with the talent that is here and how inexpensive and easy it is to shoot here,” she said. “There are a lot of things on the horizon. I’m sure eventually we’ll hit it with another ‘Field of Dreams.’”