Will new tax credits help Florida compete for movie and TV production money?

Next month, A&E Network premieres The Glades, the rare series being filmed almost entirely in Florida — in this case, the Broward County suburb of Pembroke Pines. But according to members of the local acting community, it should have been produced in Tampa Bay.

In fact, the pilot was filmed in the Bay area (including locations at the Don CeSar, right, and Belleview Biltmore resorts, as well as in South Georgia) under its then working title of Sugarloaf. But when it came to negotiating for the cable network’s 13-episode run, the producers ditched Tampa Bay for South Florida. How come?

Lindsey Norris Guthrie is manager of the Tampa Bay Film Commission. She says that what she heard from the company producing The Glades was “that they were looking for something more generic, that our area was a little too distinctive.” She also says that there were changes made with the show when it transitioned from Sugarloaf to The Glades.

But a local actor appearing in The Glades, Ricky Wayne, says he believes the film commissions in both Hillsborough and Pinellas dropped the ball. “I feel our film commissions and their respective staffs should be far more organized and aggressive.”

The executive producer of The Glades, Gary Randall, agrees.

This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.