Hollywood in Mass.?

With more film productions heading beyond Hollywood to places like Romania, Vancouver and other alternatives, is Massachusetts next?

I caught word on local news that an investment team (which includes producers from HBO’s series ROME) is looking to start a “moviemaking complex” right here in my own backyard, setting up at a now-defunct Naval Air base just outside of Boston. The plan would involve dropping around $80 million to set up several soundstages on a 30 acre plot (a comparatively tiny slice of the 1440 acre base, which I hear will ultimately end up as a suburb called Southfield), making it the largest type of movie operation on the East Coast. It would certainly make set visits more convenient for me…

Of course, this is apparently all contingent on whether the state can get its shit together in regards to incentives for filmmakers — in the past, Massachusetts has been a notorious pain in the ass for anyone who wants to shoot here, which is why places like New York and Montreal end up standing in for Beantown (only about 20% of THE DEPARTED was shot in Boston). But at least some of the local housing is nearly as pricey as parts of LA, so the Hollywood types shouldn’t feel too far from home. Weather sucks, though…