An Arizona-based filmmaker wants to shoot her next movie in her native Iowa but other states are offering her large financial incentives. Lisa Arbuckle has devised a way for the hundreds of communities across Iowa to contribute to a fund that would guarantee the movie, called “Conditional Love,” would be shot here — and benefit the entire state.
Arbuckle says “‘The 900-600 Plan’ is 900 communities, 600-dollars each. Each community or a member of the community would contribute 600-dollars toward ‘Conditional Love’ which would bridge the money gap we have between shooting in Iowa or shooting it somewhere like Georgia.” If every town in the state chipped in 600-dollars, that would bring in 540-thousand dollars. Arbuckle says all of Iowa would benefit from the shoot, not just a few cities.
While the majority of the movie’s budget is spent in the area where the movie is shot, she says there are a host of taxes filmmakers have to pay into the state’s general fund, in addition to jobs brought to the state. Also, she says for every film shot in Iowa, the state becomes a location more filmmakers will want to use for a backdrop. Arbuckle says the city of Los Angeles and several states are making significant offers to become the location for the film.
She says Vermont wants to stand in for Iowa with a ten-percent rebate incentive offer, which for this film is one-million dollars immediately after the shooting wraps, “and to an investor, that’s a big deal.” Arbuckle is a Vinton native and the movie is set in Cedar Rapids. She says she’d love to film her movie in both Benton and Linn counties, but the lures from other states can’t be ignored.
“I definitely want to shoot it in Iowa but unfortunately, it comes down to money. This 900-600 plan was the only thing we could think of that could make up that difference and make it possible to shoot in Iowa. So if it doesn’t work, I don’t know what else I can do. I’m trying my hardest and it’s really in Iowa’s hands.” The movie is about an aging mother who wins the lottery and offers each of her three grown children two-million dollars each, but they first have to change their lives to fit her beliefs of how they should be living. Arbuckle hopes to land stars like Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon. For more information about the movie and the plan, surf to “www.conditionallovemovie.com”.