Opening Soon: `The Hollywired Of the South'
Wall Street Journal
Print Media Edition: Eastern edition
New York
Apr 19, 1995
By Robert Frank
It has become a standard line: Some city or town in the region lands a few movie or television shoots and all of a sudden it's the "Hollywood of the South."
In fact, it's almost as standard as a town becoming the "Silicon Valley of the South."
Now an Atlanta production company is making a bid to grab both those monikers: It wants to build a movie-making complex of the future.
Or, as they say in the biz, it wants to be the "Hollywired of the South."
The company, Atlanta Stage Works, owns a sprawling complex of sound stages, movie sets, computer-animation studios and interactive CD-ROM shops in southeast Atlanta. It's now about to launch a $9 million expansion that would more than triple the size and scope of its operations.
The new complex will house full-scale television studios, production offices, sound stages and a powerful stable of computer and electronic equipment for producing everything from the glamorous (feature films, Sega games, full-length animation movies) to the mundane (how-to videos).
"The goal is to make it the film lot of the 21st Century," says Tom Arcuragi, the company's founder and president.
This isn't to suggest that Atlanta Stage Works is causing any panic at Industrial Light & Magic, the Hollywood production giant run by George Lucas. Industrial Light is expected to keep its hold on special effects and production for the big splashy feature films.
But industry experts say Atlanta Stage Works probably has a good chance at serving smaller niche markets -- especially as digital production and filmmaking in the region continues to grow.
"There's plenty of room for upstart production companies like these to work with newer filmmakers and the lower-budget stuff," says a spokesperson for Industrial Light & Magic. "It's a fast-growing market, and more and
more people can get involved." |
