By Jaclyn Houghton

CNHI News Service

OKLAHOMA CITY — Mark Marshall is ready to bring a little bit of Hollywood back to Oklahoma.

The Enid native spent close to 30 years in Los Angeles working with Hollywood big shots like Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner, but the Oklahoma winds carried him back home in 2001.

He has returned to Oklahoma to get the film industry rolling in a state that he feels has a lot of potential.

“If we can get here and start making movies it’s going to attract others,” said Marshall, 49.

The economic impact of the film and television industries in Oklahoma has increased in recent years, Jill Simpson is hoping legislation this year may further boost the changing industry.

“It’s, in my opinion, a wonderful thing because these films can be incubated outside the studio system,” said Simpson, director of the Oklahoma Film and Music Office. “Interesting stories can be told that might not make it if they had to be done on (big) budget levels. You can tell small stories on a much more conservative budget.”

She said there was an $18.9 million economic impact in the state from the entertainment industry in fiscal 2006, compared with about $11.2 million the year before.

Simpson is championing increased tax incentives to film and television companies that choose the state to film, and is also looking to increase educational training programs to provide a stronger crew base in Oklahoma.

Finding a home

Oklahoma legislators passed a law in 2005 to put $5 million in a fund that would be replenished each year. The money is on a first-come, first-served basis and can be used as a 15 percent tax rebate if the film or television company spends between $2 million and $5 million in the state.

The tax rebates have yet to be used.

“We’re not really set up with the big budget studio films with our incentive,” she said. “What we are set up for are the small independents.”

Filming has occurred in the state, she said, but none of the productions have qualified for the rebates.