Article

A pair of longtime Boston-area video and film equipment companies are teaming up to cash in on the surge of Hollywood movies filming in the Bay State.

Local restaurants have been busy servicing the cast and crew, and Laverne Lovell’s flower shop has been busy filling orders, including a recent arrangement for Sir Ben Kingsley.

Voters yesterday gave an enthusiastic green light to a proposal to build a movie studio on 300 acres of town-owned land a few miles from the Bourne Bridge.

The recent boom in feature films being made around Boston has led to all kinds of action for people who want to act out their dreams.

Voters here have seen the message on 1,500 lawn signs, seen it on TV ads, read it in e-mails and pamphlets, and heard it in phone and personal pleas: Say “Yes to the ROCK.” That’s the rallying cry for a citizens’ committee that has blitzed the town with their message about Question 3, a nonbinding referendum on Saturday’s ballot in Plymouth.

The city has reeled in a big one — and there may be a few more on the line. Production crews for a new Bruce Willis movie, “The Surrogates,” are set to start work in Worcester Monday and will stay through August.

To those who wonder whether there’s room in Massachusetts for two major movie studios, the answer from the studios is an emphatic yes.

It’s too soon to know whether private investors will build production and post-production facilities without a costly new tax incentive.

MFO Variety ad congratulating 21 on being the number one movie in America.

Crews from This Side of the Truth, the romantic comedy that begins filming in Lowell tomorrow, have made their mark on the local economy.

88 film productions with end dates between 2006 and 2008 spent a total of $544 million in the state.

Thanks to the state’s newly renovated film incentives, film production in Massachusetts, which struggled along at one or two pics per year, has ballooned to an anticipated six or seven features shooting simultaneously this spring.

The Bay State is fast becoming a favorite location for Hollywood filmmakers, with Taunton’s Whittenton Mills undergoing the latest cinematic transformation into a World War II concentration camp for the upcoming film “Ashecliffe,” directed by Martin Scorsese.

Hollywood’s path to the Whittenton Mills complex began when filmmakers were scouting Massachusetts for a state hospital.

The boom in movies being filmed in the Hub has meant millions of dollars in new business for city hotels.

If patrons of the Burlington Mall notice holiday decorations about five weeks from now, don’t think it’s a rush to create a nine-month shopping season. The decorations will be part of the backdrop as scenes from the film “Mall Cop” will be shot at the mall beginning March 24, the day after Easter.

MFO Variety ad congratulating Amy Ryan on her Academy Award nomination for GONE BABY GONE.

A major movie studio in Plymouth could generate as many as 2,000 well-paying jobs and stimulate the tourism and service industries in the region, potentially becoming the largest private employer in the Plymouth area.

Director Sam Weisman, Governor Deval Patrick, Speaker Sal DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray head the list of MFO ALL STARS for 2007.

For five days in November and December, the normally sedate suburban town of 25,000 people became Hollywood Central, with town residents enlisted to serve as extras, police controlling traffic and providing security, and the neighborhood buzz centering around how much taller movie star Cameron Diaz appeared in person.