Since 2008, the state of Connecticut has waited with bated breath for Connecticut Studios, a film studio project that promised to bring the lights of Hollywood to the farms of New England. The town it would be based in, South Windsor, Connecticut, was in negotiations with the developers, Pacifica Ventures (they built Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico) for years, before they dropped out of the project. All that time, film professionals, and hopeful film professionals, have been waiting for the opportunity to ply their trade at home, instead of hoofing it to New York City to work.
Now, it looks like there may be life in the project still. The mayor of South Windsor said that the project is now a two-phase development, with a smaller studio being built with a fuel cell in phase one. There’s a new partner in the project who would handle the development and running of the studio, now that Pacifica has dropped out. There was a presentation given at a South Windsor town meeting on January 5; you can download it here. (The pages will look blank, but you’ll be able to download it by clicking the save button in the lower right hand corner.)
I’ve worked with the state, and lobbied the state, since 2005, trying to help a studio project get built there, but sad as this is to say, it’s never really been in the cards for Connecticut. I hope this does happen, for all the film industry people who still live there, but I don’t think it’s going to. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for seven years …
Marty Lang 