Utah making a cinematic comeback

Back in the golden age of the movie-studio era, when Westerns were king, Utah was known as "Little Hollywood."

The state — especially southern Utah — hosted numerous movie productions during that period, largely driven by director John Ford's many classic pictures, such as "Stagecoach" (1939), "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949) and "The Searchers" (1956).

But location diversity is a strong asset for Utah, since the state has areas with mountains, deserts and fairly generic suburbs. Utah has subbed for the Middle East (1942's "Arabian Nights"), Texas (1984's "Footloose"), alien worlds (1999's "GalaxyQuest") and post-Apocalyptic New York City (1968's "Planet of the Apes"), among others.

In fact, outside of California and New York, few states have hosted more film and television production than Utah did during the 20th century. By the time the 1990s rolled around, the state was regularly raking in close to $100 million annually.

The 21st century hasn't been nearly as kind to Utah. There was a lull in film and television production following 9/11, and Utah was one of the states most affected, according to Aaron Syrett, of the Utah Film Commission. Syrett attributes at least some of that to lingering concerns over air-travel safety, which initially led studios to cut back on the number of projects filmed outside of Hollywood.

"Things really dried up there for a while. The entire country still hasn't recovered completely," said Syrett, the executive director of the state-run agency.

And it certainly hasn't helped that the United States has seen increased competition for entertainment business dollars from both Canada and Australia, where it's cheaper to shoot films and television programs. "It's a much more competitive business than it used to be," said Syrett. "Everyone has to do what they can to entice production."

That includes offering incentives to production companies. The Canadian government gives tax rebates and refunds to those companies, and that country has seen an increase in television-movie productions as a result — the types of projects that were once considered "bread-and-butter" for Utah.

However, the state has begun fighting back, and now boasts its own incentives program, which includes offering tax refunds of up to 10 percent — or as much as $250,000 — to productions that film in Utah.

And there have been immediate, positive results, Syrett said.

Among the films that came to Utah after the announcement of the incentives program were the acclaimed 2006 drama "The World's Fastest Indian," starring Anthony Hopkins.