William Vance (Bill) Arnold, Jr., North Carolina’s first Film Commissioner, died Sunday, August 14, 2011, at the age of 75, at his home in Raleigh. Named to the post in 1980 by then-Governor Jim Hunt, served in that role for 26 years, helping to establish the state’s production credentials, until his retirement in September 2006.
Four of the state’s leading film organizations are among the 325 groups tapped to receive grants from the North Carolina Arts Council in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
The CW Network announced yesterday it has renewed the drama “One Tree Hill” for a ninth season, ordering 13 new episodes for the 2011-12 season. The Wilmington-shot show will likely start production in June or July.
The news of the past few months has been filled with film and television productions announcing plans to film in North Carolina. Where before the lead story on North Carolina’s film industry was about the loss of business to other states, slowly a new picture seems to have taken shape: one of a hopeful, yet cautious, optimism that the state’s film industry is heading for a renaissance.
The debut memoir “Confessions of a Rebel Debutante,” written by North Carolina-native Anna Fields, has been optioned to be made into a feature film.
In early October, Overture Films distributed the prison drama “Stone” in limited release around the country. Directed by John Curran and starring Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich, the film was written by North Carolina screenwriter and playwright Angus MacLachlan (“Junebug“), who still calls Winston-Salem home.
Shortly after returning from the Venice Film Festival, we caught up with ‘Road to Nowhere’ producer Steven Gaydos to find out how the trip went and to learn more about the film.
Earlier this summer, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue signed a pair of bills into law that made the state’s tax incentives for production more competitive. But after review by the state’s Senate Finance Committee, another highly sought after change was left out of the final legislation.
This past spring, filmmaker David Gordon Green received the Emerging Master Award at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem. The ceremony was held on the campus of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Green’s alma matter, following the 10th anniversary screening of his first feature, “George Washington,” which was shot in Winston-Salem.
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