Movie Production Set for SF
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) _ Movie making seems to be making a comeback in San Francisco.
A major HBO production will begin filming in the city early next year and officials are hoping that is just the beginning.
Laurel Barsotti, permit coordinator with the San Francisco Film Commission said it is an ideal location, even if a film is set somewhere else.
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"A producer or director is really able to achieve many looks without going very far," she said. "And able to recreate a story that takes place all over the world, all within an hour's radius of San Francisco."
Case in point: the film version of the Broadway musical "Rent," which is set in New York, but was filmed primarily on Treasure Island and in other parts of San Francisco.
And now, the HBO Films original movie "Hemingway and Gellhorn," which is based on the romance between Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, is set to shoot in San Francisco, even though it takes place in Shanghai, Havana and Key West.
Barsotti said she believes this film is just the beginning.
"We absolutely feel that San Francisco is back on the map as a movie making destination and that through our board of supervisors and the support of the mayor, we really are going to continue to see an increase of filming in San Francisco," said Barsotti.
She said she believes that financial incentives offered by both the state and San Francisco will attract more films to the city, after California has seen a lot of film production move elsewhere in recent years.
