On the set of 'Little Murder:' How Detroit landed starring film role

Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News

Detroit -- In a long-empty, low-slung warehouse at Rosa Parks and Bagley, filmmakers have turned the Motor City into a piece of the Big Easy. Where office workers once handled paperwork for Detroit Building Materials LLC, production assistants and interns spent eight weeks readying sets and making arrangements for "Little Murder," an independent feature film starring Hollywood vet Terrence Howard, whose film credits include "Mr. Holland's Opus," "Ray," "Hustle & Flow" and "Iron Man."

"Little Murder" is noteworthy because it will be the first full-length feature film made entirely in Michigan -- including post-production work -- since the state enacted a law last year giving filmmakers a big tax break.

The decision to make "Little Murder" in Michigan came out of financial necessity -- budget numbers that didn't work in other film states did here. But it also represents a leap of faith. Last spring, just as other producers were scared off because a movement was gaining momentum in Lansing to cut or eliminate the credit, the "Little Murder" crew committed to spend millions on their all-Detroit production, with much of that money spent on local talent.

"Little Murder" is a thriller in which a down-and-out detective in post-Katrina New Orleans meets the ghost of a jazz musician who's helping solve her own murder.

Like many of its counterparts, including other much-noticed projects like director/actor Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and the new HBO series "Hung," "Little Murder" came to town because of the refundable state tax credit for up to 42 percent of a production's cost. It's the nation's most generous tax incentive for film and television makers.

And like many of its predecessors in the state, the film wasn't originally planned for a Michigan shoot.

"This is a New Orleans story, so we naturally looked to Louisiana," said Eric Fierstein, one of the producers of "Little Murder." "The numbers caught our attention, and the location drew us in."

The crew of Little Murder was impressed not only with Michigan's fiscal commitment to the film industry but also with its physical flexibility. Being a quintessentially New Orleans story, Fierstein said re-creating areas such as the French Quarter was a necessity, even if Detroit is thousands of miles away from the Big Easy.

"Detroit has one of the best mixes of houses and buildings with many different architectural styles, so we were able to find pieces of New Orleans here in Michigan," Fierstein said during a break before a long night of filming last week.

Among the spots Metro Detroit might recognize in the final print of "Little Murder": the Cass Corridor, which makes an appearance as the French Quarter (the crew used The Old Miami bar as a base), and a number of stately homes in areas such as the Woodbridge neighborhood, whose houses are similar to those in Louisiana's cultural capital.

The Corktown warehouse has served the film's producers well.

Originally planned for use as only office and storage space, Fierstein said the warehouse proved to be a godsend for "Little Murder."

Inside, set builders have created the interiors that serve as backdrops for a majority of the film's scenes -- most of the action is indoors -- and in the parking lots out back, cars painted to emulate New Orleans police cruisers and ambulances sit next to makeup and wardrobe trailers for the actors.

The choice to have Michigan stand in for Louisiana is a coup for the state, especially given the fact that Louisiana is one of Michigan's biggest competitors for film business. The Bayou State has spent years developing its film industry by implementing an aggressive tax incentive program, investing in infrastructure and educating thousands of residents to work in the field.

Michigan's tax incentive, beating Louisiana's by up to 12 percentage points, sparked the interest in turning Motown into New Orleans.

Jeff Spilman, co-founder of Ferndale's S3 Entertainment Group, a company that helps coordinate filming efforts in Michigan, explains that the incentive makes a big difference, especially for independent films like "Little Murder."

"What gets lost in the Hollywood glitz, sometimes, is that this is a cutthroat business where profit margins aren't very large," Spilman said during an interview on the "Little Murder" set. "Michigan wouldn't have been on the map for these guys if it wasn't for that, and the money and jobs would've gone somewhere else."

Getting the budget together for a film like "Little Murder" is no small task. In addition to paying actors, producers and crew members, and housing and feeding them, film executives have to account for all kinds of spending on sets, costumes and support services and equipment.

Melissa Wylie, line producer for "Little Murder," was one of the first of the film's crew members to come to Michigan this year. After executives scouted locations and received approval for the tax credit through the Michigan Film Office, Wylie arrived in April to begin assembling the crew that would make the most intense eight weeks of filming in Detroit go smoothly.

She hired many Michiganians to handle everything from lighting to catering to chauffeuring actors.

Hiring locally is not only cheaper for a production than importing talent from Hollywood, but also qualifies it for a larger tax incentive.

"They've all been great," Wylie said of her local help, which includes both technical and artistic crew. "I just wish there were more of them."

"Little Murder" will leave a large economic impact beyond just the dozens of locals the production has on its payrolls. It's also providing a boost to local hotels such as downtown's Westin Book-Cadillac and to Corktown's Slows BBQ restaurant, a stone's throw down Michigan Avenue from the site of the old Tiger Stadium and a favorite of the "Little Murder" crew.

Like any big project, though, there have been snags.

One well-publicized one came in late August, when two of the film crew were robbed at gunpoint while doing some prep work in Woodbridge. Police apprehended the suspects and retrieved a stolen cell phone and wallet.

Nonetheless, Wylie and Fierstein said they're looking at bringing more projects to Michigan in the near future both because of the financial incentive to do so and because they like the city; "Little Murder" is scheduled to wrap up its 22 days of filming in Detroit today.

nhurst@detnews.com (313) 222-2293