FILM COMEBACK TERRORIST ATTACKS CAUSE HOLLYWOOD TO CONSIDER PULLING BACK ON RUNAWAY PRODUCTIONS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

During Hollywood's Golden Age, stars like Bette Davis, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford only had to drive a short distance from their Los Angeles-area homes to a nearby studio lot to report for work on their latest picture.

The dismantling of the studio contract system ended such cozy arrangements and free-lancing movie stars began tackling more projects shot around the globe. Still, it has been the rapid rise of what is known as ``runaway production'' that has really kept casts and crews far from home in recent years with Canada, Australia and Great Britain offering cheaper production costs.

But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States and the continuing global uncertainty has led to a growing sentiment among Hollywood's filmmakers and performers: We want to stay home.

``Right now, I'm looking at material and thinking, Can we shoot this here? I'll bet everybody is,'' said Rachel Pheffer, producer of last summer's ``Crazy/Beautiful.''

Pheffer, who also produced ``A Civil Action'' and several other films said the world turmoil ``magnifies how much I do not want to be away from my family.''

Robert E. Relyea, MGM's president of production said: ``It's not just the A-list actor. We had a top cameraman we wanted for a picture and he said he loved the picture but was going to cut his price in half and do a sitcom to be with his family for the next six months.''

MGM, like most major movie studios, stockpiled its films this year because of the fear of both a writer's and actor's strike. So decisions about which movies to make and where and when to make them are now being made with the world situation in mind, according to Relyea.

The Los Angeles Film Commission reports an increase in inquiries for area shoots but the full impact will not be known for a few months because of the strike stockpiling. The Kern County Film Commission is also experiencing a spike in inquiries.

``We think that even though that may be a terrible way to get projects, if a film company wants to stay closer to home, they can find virtually everything they want in the Los Angeles area, no reason to go to Canada,'' said Kern County Film Commission Chairman Barry Zoeller. ``It can keep jobs in California.''

Michael Moore, president of Raliegh Studios in Los Angeles, said he has already seen an increase in local commercial production and expects to see a similar trend once feature film production picks up again.

``I think that if producers really had their druthers they would film in L.A.,'' Moore said. ``This is a time when the talent really wants to work at home and be with their families as opposed to being abroad.''

Vance Van Petten, executive director of the Producer's Guild of America, said a trend toward filming locally is something that is ``definitely happening'' with producers trying to make their projects work in Los Angeles or elsewhere in the United States.

``There is this American can-do attitude that is developing, a greater sense of creating jobs and creating work for Americans coupled with a renewed sense of flexibility in the marketplace,'' Van Petten said. ``People are being a little more flexible on rates to try and make the budget more doable with less of a distinction between a Canadian budget and a Los Angeles budget.''

Producer Ashok Amritraj, whose latest film, ``Bandits,'' starring Bruce Willis, hit theaters Friday, said he is scouting domestic locations for his next project, ``Extractors.''

``There's no question that people are hesitant to travel,'' said Amritraj, co-chairman of Hyde Park Entertainment. ``I think it's a good time for the Los Angeles Film Commission and the people involved to try and mount a campaign to take full advantage of this because there has been so much runaway production.''

Runaway production of American films and TV shows to foreign countries has skyrocketed in recent years, shifting thousands of jobs and an estimated $13 billion to $15 billion in annual economic benefits to outside the United States.

The reason for the exodus from Hollywood includes far lower costs of local crews and locations, government-sponsored incentives and weaker foreign currencies relative to the dollar.

A wage-based tax credit bill, endorsed by California Sen. Barbara Boxer and a bipartisan group of senators, was introduced in the Senate this summer and aims to put an end to runaway film production by providing financial incentives to film and television producers who shoot within the borders of the United States. That proposed legislation also comes at a time that Canada itself is reassessing its tax incentives that have proven to be so alluring to hundreds of U.S. productions.

``There's got to be some way to compete with Canada and Australia,'' Amritraj said. ``I think there should be some kind of incentive from rebates or some kind of union benefits.''

Steve Caplan of the Association of Independent Movie Producers said that while the proposed federal legislation is promising, filmmakers will have difficult budget decisions to make until a solution is reached.

``The cost issues do remain,'' said Caplan, the association's vice president of external affairs. ``The fact is that there are a number of factors which contributed to production abroad. It's going to take an effort by everyone here in major production centers in L.A. and New York to ensure that we are competitive and that we use this opportunity to attract and keep more production here.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A technician runs a production board in the gym at Grant High School in North Hollywood, where a commercial is being filmed.

(2 -- color) Production trailers are parked behind the gym at Grant High. A growing number of filmmakers want to keep productions at home.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer