Los Angeles, August 16: There is a disaster developing in California, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing his best to stop it. But this one may well be beyond even the powers of the old superhero for, unless something changes very soon, we are heading for the end of Hollywood as we know it.
For a decade, film production has slowly been abandoning Hollywood, lured away by financial incentives offered by Canada and other US states. The result is that the number of studio feature films shot in California has more than halved since 2003. And broadcast and cable television shows, and commercial shoots, are also down significantly, with 44 of 103 pilot episodes shot outside southern California this year.
“In 2008 the worst numbers ever were recorded, and the first six months of 2009 show a 50 per cent drop from that. That can only be described as a disaster,” said Paul Audley, president of FilmLA, the non-profit organisation which coordinates film, TV and commercial production in and around Los Angeles.
–Agencies