Motown Motion Picture Studios (was known as ''Michigan Motion Picture Studios'' and formerly ''Raleigh Michigan Studios'') was located in the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

suburb of

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

and owned by Motown Motion Pictures LLC . Motown Motion Pictures was owned by Linden Nelson, A. Alfred Taubman and John Rakolta Jr., William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and Raleigh Entertainment (10%).

Background

The studios were first developed in 2009 when the state had a generous film tax credit promoted by the governor at the time,

Jennifer Granholm Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-American lawyer, educator, author, political commentator, and politician serving as the 16th United States secretary of energy since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she pre ...

. Linden Nelson's son passed on how Michigan's film credits were a big topic of discussion at

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

History

Nelson discussed with

Ari Emanuel Ariel Zev Emanuel (born 1961) is an American businessman and the CEO of Endeavor, an entertainment and media agency that owns the UFC. He was a founding partner of the Endeavor Talent Agency and was instrumental in shaping its June 2009 merger ...

the idea of a Michigan production studio to take advantage of the tax break. Nelson and Emanuel formed Motown Motion Pictures LLC in May 2008. Soon two more investors were brought in to the company: John Rakolta Jr., a head of a commercial construction company, and A. Alfred Taubman. A former GM plant in Pontiac, Michigan, was purchased rather inexpensively in early 2009 for the studio. Michigan's officials initially considered the studio to be a significant economic engine, since it was intended to establish the state as a legitimate contender in the 12-month-a-year film business. With Pontiac having a high unemployment rate and a

financial emergency Financial emergency is a state of receivership for the State of Michigan's local governments. History DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1988 till:2010 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea ...

, the studio was seen as a way to diversify the economy of the city away from General Motors then given a bailout. The company pursued and got various government incentives. The city was pushed, over the objections of the financial manager, to waive property taxes and issued municipal bonds on behalf of the company. The bonds were backed by the state retirement system. The studio got assistance from a federal tax credit program with help from Edward B. Montgomery, the White House assistant for the automobile communities. The studio was originally to be named Motown Motion Pictures, giving possible confusion with multiple businesses, particularly Motown Records. So in June 2009, the Raleigh Michigan Studios name was selected after Raleigh Entertainment, the company which would be managing the studio. Nelson indicated at that time that Emanuel had 20 pictures lined up to film at the studio. By September 2009, several colleges including Oakland University and Baker College started holding film classes at the studio. The ground was broken on the studio on July 27, 2010, with the governor and other officials in attendance. The studios opened in summer 2011 and

Raleigh Studios Raleigh Studios is a studio facility located in Hollywood, Los Angeles and has been under the ownership of Raleigh Enterprises since 1979. The location has been active since 1915. Before Raleigh, the studio was run by Famous Players Film Company, ...

of Hollywood took over management of the facility. Raleigh Studios of Hollywood operated and marketed the studio, totaling at the Pontiac Centerpoint Business Campus, until August 2012. The first big picture filmed at the studio was Disney's ''

Oz the Great and Powerful ''Oz the Great and Powerful'' is a 2013 American fantasy adventure film directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Lindsay-Abaire and Mitchell Kapner from a story by Kapner. Based on L. Frank Baum's early 20th century ''Oz'' novels and set 20 y ...

''. Gov.

Rick Snyder Richard Dale Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Snyder previo ...

's 2011 rollback of state film credits caused some film producers to bypass the Michigan studio resulting in the studio investors to miss scheduled debt servicing payments and in August 2012 the studio defaulted on the entire $630,000 payment on the bond. In August 2012, Raleigh Studios ended their management agreement with the studios. The owners of the facility then changed the name to Michigan Motion Picture Studios. On June 22nd, 2018, it was announced that the building and the land comprising the studio would be sold to then-Commerce Township-based defense contractor Williams International Co. LLC. The sale of the property and two adjacent parcels spanning 120 acres was sold for $44 million.

References

External links

* American film studios Companies based in Oakland County, Michigan Pontiac, Michigan Entertainment companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in Michigan {{film-studio-stub