International Business : Take 5! Emerald Isle! : Ireland in the Spotlight as Film Production Hub

Ireland is giving a major push to one of its youngest and most promising industries--film production--with plans to establish an office in Los Angeles to market the Emerald Isle as a prime feature-film location.

Box-office hits such as “The Commitments,” “Far and Away,” “In the Name of the Father” and the Oscar-winning “My Left Foot” have cast Ireland into the international spotlight as a major center for film production.

“There is a general atmosphere of excitement about what is happening in the industry here,” Arts and Culture Minister Michael Higgins told a news conference at the recent launch of a film production report.

He said he expected about 20 feature films to be shot in Ireland this year.

“One could say that we are achieving a general mobilization of resources in the private and state sectors to ensure that we will achieve a vibrant and secure future for the industry,” Higgins said.

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The Los Angeles office will be part of a screen commission, which will be a one-stop shop for those who wish to produce films in Ireland. The office could be open by this summer.

Last year, “Frankie Starlight,” based on the novel “The Dork of Cork” by Chet Raymo and starring Matt Dillon, was shot on location in Dublin and in Wicklow and Kildare, south of the capital, as well as in France and Texas.

With a budget of $7 million, it is billed as “a fairy tale for the space age.”

Marlon Brando may be the next star to grace Ireland’s film sets if current plans to shoot “Divine Rapture” here soon go ahead. The film is described as a romantic black comedy in which actress Debra Winger plays an employee of a bra and girdle factory who dies and comes back to life. Her priest, played by Brando, tries to turn her into a saint.

Higgins expressed enthusiasm for fostering art and culture through a medium accessible to large audiences but added that the development of films was also essential to create jobs, encourage training and stimulate film-related industries.

The recent report by the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation focuses on 16 major productions including feature films, major television dramas and animation projects shot in Ireland in 1993 and says $92 million was spent on major film productions in the year.

The Irish government’s coffers had a net gain of $2.5 million on its investment in films in 1993.

The 16 productions spent $27 million on Irish goods and services and generated directly and indirectly the equivalent of 1,228 full-time Irish jobs, the report said.

Ireland already has a range of incentives and tax breaks to lure producers to its shores. Fiscal incentives were introduced in 1987, but the government has launched two key initiatives in the past two years to give the industry a further boost.

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The Irish Film Board, which had been out of action since 1987, was re-established in early 1993 to provide development loans and partial production finance for certain film projects.

But the most radical move to stimulate the growth of the industry was a vital amendment to Section 35 of the Finance Act.

When the incentives were introduced eight years ago to promote productions, with a set of concessions for corporate investors, the terms were too strict to make a huge impact.

A condition that at least 75% of a production had to take place in Ireland in order to qualify for tax relief proved to be a major stumbling block.

But now a film can attract tax breaks with a minimum of just 10% of the work carried out in Ireland, provided that it is a co-production with other countries.

The limit on investments by corporations qualifying for tax relief has been raised to $1.65 million over a three-year period from $945,000.

The investment option was widened to embrace private individuals, who can claim personal income-tax relief on investments of up to $39,400 a year in a company set up specifically to make a film.