Beanywood

Well, I can't say I care much for the name, Beanywood (I'm comin', Beany-boy!) but the two proposed movie studios on the South Shore are a great idea. One in Weymouth (SouthField Studios on an old naval air base and --gulp--maybe a Superfund site) and Plymouth Rock Studios in, well, Plymouth are great ideas.

Big-time movies are being shot in and around Boston since the commonwealth gave a bunch of tax incentives to movie-makers. Just in the past couple of weeks there's been Shutter Island, Mall Cop, Bride Wars, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, This Side of the Truth, and The Proposal.

All this info and more comes from a guy named Chuck Slavin. He's kind of a cheerleader/social chairman for all these studio initiatives. He's an actor and, while I've never met him, from the amount of email I get from him, he's seems kind of a dynamo.

But why shouldn't movies be shot around here? And why shouldn't the state give tax credits to the movie industry? In a state that thinks casinos and adding toll booths on the Mass Pike are the way to bring in revenue, the movie industry is giving us another option.

It means work for hard-working actor types, plus real jobs...for everyone from casting directors and actors to production and technical people to caterers and photographers and electricians and carpenters. And you can't buy the kind of promotion a movie gives to an area. Think of the tourists coming to Southie to see where Gone Baby Gone was shot. Or was it Roslindale? They're going to have to repaint the Freedom Trail when this really kicks in.

It's gorgeous around here, there are the local haunts in and around Boston no matter if you're shooting a movie full of glamour pusses or rough and tough wise guys, there's the ocean, the mountains not too far off, and lots of actors and talent. As a matter of fact, it's getting to the point where you can't spit off the Hancock Tower without hitting a few actors before it hits pavement.