Detroit Film Locations Tour Maps Now Available

LANSING – Downtown Detroit has provided filming locations for more than 60 feature films, television series and other digital media productions in the past several years, many of which are featured in a new Detroit Film Locations Tour map produced by the Michigan Film Office.

The maps are available at Detroit tourism organizations, including Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, D:hive, Feet on the Street Tours and Wheelhouse Detroit Bike Shop.  Electronic copies of the map are also available on the Film Office Web site, www.michigan.org, and the Michigan Advantage Web site.

The tour starts and finishes at the GM Renaissance Center with 15 stops along the way including the Old Wayne County Building (LOL, Transformers III, Conviction), Harmonie Park (The Double, The Five-Year Engagement), Lafayette and American Coney Islands (LOL, Whip It, Detroit 1-8-7, Food Wars) and the Detroit People Mover Park Avenue station (Alex Cross, The Giant Mechanical Man).

The map also highlights other notable film locations in the city not featured on the tour, as well as a wide number of other tour opportunities available in Detroit.

"Attractions like this film tour help to reinforce the work we and our local partners are doing to promote our vibrant urban centers here in Michigan," said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. "Anytime we can encourage people to explore downtown Detroit it creates positive momentum for our tourism efforts here in Michigan."

Projects featured in the tour include Detroit 1-8-7, Real Steel, The Five-Year Engagement, The Ides of March, Transformers III, Alex Cross, Sparkle and Whip It.

Work has also begun on film tour maps for other areas of the state to showcase the wide range of locations used in film and television productions here in Michigan.

Michigan's film incentives were born under the Granholm administration in 2008, offering a straight refund of 42 percent of eligible film and video expenditures made in the state. What was an open-ended tax credit that cost the state more than $100 million in its final year was capped at $25 million by the Snyder administration, although a recent unexpected rise in state revenue has led to a proposal to raise it to $50 million. The cut has sharply curtailed the number of big-budget films being shot in the state.