'The Lacuna,' Kingsolver's Vacant Return

Hollywood's Raleigh Studios plants flag in Budapest

Raleigh Studios is building a new studio complex, but you won't be able to get there on the 101. 

The Hollywood-based company, the largest independent studio operator in the United States, runs studios in Hollywood, Manhattan Beach and Louisiana, and now is expanding in a big way into Eastern Europe.

The company is set to open nine sound stages totaling 180,907 square feet on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary, this spring to take advantage of the country's low-cost labor and film tax credits.

Raleigh, which is owned by commercial developers George and Mark Rosenthal (whose assets include the Sunset Marquis Hotel in Hollywood), is developing the $70-million project with a consortium of Hungarian investors and businessmen called the Origo Film Group. Scheduled to open in April, the complex would be the most ambitious project to date for Raleigh, which already owns or manages nearly 40 stages.

"This is going to be the finest studio on the continent," said Michael Moore, president of Raleigh Studios. "It will be truly run like a Hollywood studio."

Raleigh still maintains significant operations in Los Angeles. The company owns 12 sound stages in Hollywood and manages 14 sound stages in Manhattan Beach, where Marvel Studios has signed a long-term lease to shoot its "Iron Man" films. Nonetheless, the Hungary project underscores how Southern California remains vulnerable to the continued outflow of movies and TV shows to other states and countries that offer more generous incentives to filmmakers than are available in California.

That has forced companies such as Raleigh to go where their customers are going: outside of California.  Raleigh also is building a production studio in Pontiac, Mich., and operates four sound stages in Baton Rouge, La., to capitalize on the rapid film production growth in those states.

By contrast, the Walt Disney Co. announced last week that it would build 12 sound stages at its Golden Oak ranch in the Santa Clarita area. Although many local sound stages have struggled from the falloff in local film and TV production, Disney said it wanted to centralize production of various ABC and cable shows that are currently scattered throughout the region.

"From a supply-and-demand standpoint, it wouldn't make sense for us to add sound stages in Los Angeles,'' said Moore, although he said Raleigh's facilities here are mostly full.

Budapest offered several advantages, he said, citing not only the tax credits, but experienced crews, low costs of filming compared to elsewhere in Europe and the city's diverse architecture, which can double for London, Berlin or Paris.

Although Hungary has a long filmmaking tradition, for many years Hollywood gravitated to other Eastern European locations, primarily Prague, Czech Republic. Now Hungary is enjoying a resurgence in interest from filmmakers, thanks to investment in new studios and a a tax credit that covers up to 25% of production costs, making it one of the most generous in Europe. The credit was introduced in 2004 and expanded last year.

Movies filmed in Hungary this year include Lionsgate's supernatural thriller "Season of the Witch," starring Nicolas Cage;  Miramax's thriller "The Debt," starring Helen Mirren; and Focus Features' Roman drama "The Eagle of the Ninth."

Film tax incentive programs in Europe, Canada and the U.S. have become more attractive to studios as they look to reduce filming costs in the face of declining DVD sales and other economic challenges.

Erzsebet Toth, CEO of the Hungarian Film Commission, said the Raleigh complex would be a "great and welcome addition to the slate of sound stages already in business'' within 20 miles of Budapest,
including the Korda Film Studio, which hosted Universal Pictures' 2008 film "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

Raleigh Studios Budapest will include a 45,000-square-foot "superstage" that reaches 65 feet high, as well as lighting and other equipment rentals, a post-production facility, 15-acre backlot for outdoor sets and training school for film workers. The studio will be fully integrated with Raleigh's operations in Hollywood.

Moore said he expects the facility will have a high occupancy rate and has several projects lined up, but he declined to identify them.

"We're very confident judging by the level of interest and activity we've seen so far,'' he said.

-Richard Verrier

Photo: Architectural drawing of Raleigh Studios Budapest. Credit: Raleigh Studios.

'V' aliens say they come in peace. Sure! A review of the compelling sci-fi series
Some new shows fly under the radar, but not "V" (7 p.m. Central Tuesday, ABC; three and a half stars).

Of course, those giant alien ships may have something to do with "V's" high profile. (Note: The review that follows does not contain spoilers. The video clip below contains the first 9 minutes of the "V" premiere.)

If you've seen any of the ABC promos for "V," you've probably seen a glimpse of one of those ships hovering over a city, or you may have seen a commercial in which the aliens' alluring spokeswoman says that the folks in those gigantic ships come in peace. They're here to help. Everything's going to be fine.

Sure it is!

Of course, as we all know from decades of sci-fi television and films, alien invasions rarely go well. Yet no matter how many times that scenario goes awry, we can't get enough of that oldie-but-goodie "they're here!" story. And as we saw over the summer with the TV miniseries "Torchwood: Children of Earth" and the film "District 9," in the right hands, it's possible to re-tell that clash-of-species story with verve and relevance.

So is "V" any good? That's a question I've gotten frequently in the past few months. There's a slight edge of fear to the queries, as if people were almost prepared to accept the idea that those who've re-made the 1980s TV series got it all wrong.

(And let's face it, we sci-fi fans are a frequently disappointed lot. ABC hasn't quite managed to quite recapture the magic of "Lost" with any of its subsequent genre-flavored offerings. "FlashForward" still seems like a show that is more about its concept than its characters. And the other notable fall genre offering, Syfy's "Stargate Universe," is a boring, poorly plotted, lamentably sexist mess.)

Re "V," here's the positive news: The pilot for this drama is good. I have a few quibbles with it -- some of the character drama is a bit clunky -- but overall, I found the first hour of the show to be solidly entertaining and suitably suspenseful.

But here's the caveat: I have no idea whether "V" will keep up this level of quality as the show progresses. It's relatively easy to introduce a powerful menace and rachet up the tension about what that mysterious entity might do. It's harder to start doling out answers in a satisfying way, build a compelling mythology and -- most important of all -- create characters whose fate actually matters to the audience.

And despite the show's good pace and the fine performances from actors such as Morena Baccarin ("Firefly") as the smooth-talking alien leader, Joel Gretsch ("The 4400") as a doubting priest, Scott Wolf ("The Nine") as an ambitious journalist and Elizabeth Mitchell ("Lost") as a federal investigator with suspicions about the newcomers, there are a few reasons for concern.

First of all, ABC has given the show an unusual schedule: It will air four episodes during November, then bring the show back in March, after the Olympics. What if "V" doesn't do well this fall and never finishes out its run? Well, first of all, let's not get ahead of ourselves: Even though it has struggled creatively, "FlashForward" is still on the air and doing OK in the ratings. So "V" may do well enough to re-invade our TVs this spring.

But if "V" is canceled, and if we've invested in the show, we'll probably feel like Charlie Brown after Lucy takes the football away (fans of ABC's "Daybreak" will recall that "Foiled again!" feeling). And we'll hope that ABC puts the remaining episodes up on its Web site in a timely fashion.

The other causes for concern don't have me all that worried, but they're worth noting. Production on "V" was shut down for a time so that the writers could fine-tune upcoming scripts. That's a fairly common occurrence, especially for first-year shows, and the break may have given "V" the time it needed to find its feet.

Also, "V" has a new showrunner: Scott Rosenbaum ("The Shield," "Chuck") has taken over that position, a Warner Bros. TV representative confirmed. Writer Jeffrey Bell, who'd been working on "V," is expected to leave, although the previous showrunner and executive producer, Scott Peters ("The 4400") is expected to remain on the "V" staff and write for the show. (USA Today broke the news about Rosenbaum joining "V" Tuesday). I'm a fan of the shows that Rosenbaum worked on previously, so I'm hoping this is good news.

I'm also hoping that the break -- and this is purely speculation on my part -- didn't give nervous executives a chance to meddle creatively and water down the genre aspects of the show. That would be disappointing, to say the least. This is a show about aliens coming to Earth, for goodness' sake. When a drama backs away from the freaky concept at its core -- as "Dollhouse" did it its early days -- it ends up satisfying no one.

Yes, "V" has to be a fairly mainstream character drama in order to work on a broadcast network (and let's hope it is a more subtle one going forward), but to stifle the mythological storytelling or tamp down the political and cultural allegories on the show would hamstring "V" and turn it into just another generic ABC prime-time drama. Nobody needs "What About Brian" with space ships.

Part of the message of "V" is that it can be wrong to blindly place one's trust in any entity or person; handled wrongly, that message could start to feel like an anvil to the skull. But, as some of the show's characters realize, it's also a mistake to make snap judgments based on appearances.

So I'll close by saying that, at first glance, "V" seems quite compelling. But we'll have to wait to see whether the show's intentions and ambitions live up to our expectations.

Tony Hicks: In my dream world, Doogie Howser's my best bud
And so are George Clooney, Brad Pitt and George W. Bush.
'The Lacuna,' Kingsolver's Vacant Return

It's been nine years since Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible, has released a new novel — but is The Lacuna worth the wait? Critic Maureen Corrigan says this personalized perspective on the Red Scare in Mexico reflects the hidden meaning of the book's title: vacancy.

CHILE: Women in Arms
SANTIAGO, Nov 3 (IPS)The official version of Chilean history renders women’s political participation "invisible" and relegates them to a secondary or anecdotal role, says journalist Cherie Zalaquett, author of a new book, "Chilenas en armas" (Chilean Women in Arms).