Have a movie to shoot? Utah communities are ready for you

Brice Wallace 

More Utah communities are ready for their close-up, Mr. DeMille.

A set of 19 places in the state have been designated as “Film Ready Utah” communities, ready to support film productions in their areas through access to locations, crews and vendors.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

The announcement by the Utah Film Commission includes 12 places joining the group, which already included Film Kanab, Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission, Visit Ogden, Park City Film Commission, Explore Utah Valley and Salt Lake City.

The new members of the network are in Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Davis, Emery, Garfield, Heber Valley, Juab, San Juan, Tooele, Uintah, Washington and Wayne counties.

“Utah’s film industry is expanding to every corner of our state,” said Virginia Pearce, director of the commission. “The Film Ready Utah program gives rural communities resources to match local businesses and unique locations with production-related needs.”

For the past year, the Utah Film Commission has been working with city and county officials to enable more rural areas to support productions filming in their regions. It said the Film Ready Utah designation provides a local support network, access to resources, and signals to the film industry that these communities are ready to support their work.

A legislative change to encourage more film production in rural Utah has helped boost shooting there. In June alone, the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board approved tax credit and tax rebate incentives for 13 productions expected to spend a total of $142.4 million in Utah and generate 4,920 total jobs. Ninety percent of the spending will occur in rural Utah. Among the incentives was one for the production of the first two parts of “Horizon: An American Saga,” a Western feature to be directed by Kevin Costner. Horizon Series Inc. is expected to spend nearly $54 million in Utah, including during principal photography set for Aug. 29, 2022, through May 11, 2023, in Emery, Grand, Kane, San Juan and Washington counties.

“With the new targeted rural film tax credit, the Film Ready Utah program puts resources where they are needed most and expands economic opportunities throughout the state,” said Dan Hemmert, Go Utah’s executive director.

Utah’s film production history is decades-old and includes many Western classics, including “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Stagecoach,” “The Searchers,” “My Darling Clementine,” “Angel and the Badman,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales” and 2013’s “The Lone Ranger.”

The portfolio includes scenes in science fiction classics “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Planet of the Apes” as well as pop hits “Con Air,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Easy Rider,” “127 Hours,” “Fletch,” 1984’s “Footloose,” “Forrest Gump,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Galaxy Quest,” “Independence Day,” “Thelma & Louise” and “Mission Impossible.”

In recent years, Utah also has been a popular spot to film Hallmark Christmas movies. Among episodic series shot in the state are “Yellowstone,” “Touched by an Angel,” “High School Musical” and “Westworld.” The Go Utah board in September approved an incentive for the fourth season of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” set to air on Disney+.

All of that activity has meant big bucks for local communities and the state. The film commission’s website indicates that 210 projects have received incentives during the past decade. Their Utah spending totals $463 million, including $155 million in rural parts of the state. The totals also include more than 28,400 production days, more than 34,600 jobs created, and $6 billion in film tourism.{/mprestriction}