Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Prof. Harold Hill Lives!

When I first read about the Plymouth Rock Studios project in the nearby historic town of Plymouth, my half-century in the sometimes nefarious corridors of the news & entertainment business warned me that therein lay the seeds of an undertaking destined for failure.

I didn't wish them ill, but how many gadzillion times over the years had I read of enterprises to establish an east-coast Hollywood, none of which ever amounted to more than a press release and a lot of dashed hopes.

What this one seemed to have going for it, however, was the sheer magnitude of its ambitions, coupled with the enthusiastic (and -- I assumed -- due-diligence-armed) support of the Town Fathers. It even sounded as if the Commonwealth might kick in some infrastructure funding.

And then I read that such funding was not about to happen after all; that the deveopment team had shied away from some questionably-sourced underwriting; and that the plan was being scaled back.

Uh oh!

And now comes this world-class cautionary tale under the guise of an exhaustive investigative report by the Boston Globe, adroitly reported by staffers Scott Allen and Marcella Bombardieri.
It's long-ish but well worth your time if you live in MA or Tinseltown, and/or are obsessed with the machinations of the movie biz.

Shades of Music Man! Meredeth Wilson, where are you when we need you?


http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?p1=Header_Searchbox_LocalSearch&s.sm.query=Plymouth+Rock+studios&s.tab=

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