Film incentives offer Detroit an economic boom during auto crisis, TIME magazine writes

It's a picture-perfect New York City moment, and it's only after the director yells "Cut!" that you'd notice that the façade over Gallagher's right shoulder is in fact the 100-year-old Ford Building in downtown Detroit. This scene, along with every other from the legal drama Betty Anne Waters, starring Hilary Swank, is being filmed in Michigan, the new Hollywood of the Midwest.

Other states, including New Mexico and Louisiana, have long wooed producers with tax incentives. And for a few years, it seemed as if every "New York" movie was filmed in either Vancouver or Toronto. But the Canadian exchange rate doesn't favor Hollywood anymore, and Michigan's tax rebate of up to 42% for productions that hire locally is the most generous in the country. Nearly 70 movies — including Clint Eastwood's 2008 hit Gran Torino — have been shot or been scheduled to be filmed here since the state passed its tax breaks last April. In 2007 film crews spent about $4 million in Michigan. Last year that figure was more than $100 million, and it could quadruple in 2009. (See pictures of Michigan's film industry.)