Hollywood returns to Ohio in upcoming movie shoots

CINCINNATI - Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley will star in the latest movie set to film in Ohio, which has been courting Hollywood with state tax incentives.

The Ohio Department of Development said Tuesday that credits totaling more than $1.5 million have been approved for two more movies.

"A Doll's House" with Kingsley will begin shooting in the Cincinnati area in late January. Officials expect producers to hire 188 Ohioans for cast and crew for the modern adaptation of the 19th century dramatic play written by Henrik Ibsen. Kingsley won a Best Actor Academy Award for the 1982 movie "Gandhi."

Later this year, scenes for a thriller called "Scorned" will be shot in the Shawnee State Forest area in Scioto County in southern Ohio. The state expects the production to hire 107 Ohioans. The movie's cast hasn't been announced.

The motion picture tax credit program, created to boost Ohio in the competition among states to lure productions, has helped bring 28 film projects within three years worth a projected total $115 million of spending in Ohio, according to state spokeswoman Katie Sabatino.

Among last year's highlights were filming in Cleveland and Wilmington for the superhero-laden movie "The Avengers" and in Cincinnati and Oxford of scenes for George Clooney's politics drama "Ides of March."

"These movies mean jobs and dollars, as well as a lot of excitement," Kristen Erwin, the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission's executive director, said in a statement.
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