Sam Raimi, a hometown hero gone Hollywood, makes his latest directing splash this coming week when "Oz the Great and Powerful" opens nationwide.
Julie Hinds of the Freep profiles the former Birmingham prodigy who filmed "Oz" at a Pontiac studio and rented a West Bloomfield during the 2011 shoot.
The Groves High School graduate who put himself on the map with a shoestring-budget film called "The Evil Dead" and went on to helm the "Spider-Man" trilogy is awaiting Friday's opening of his most challenging film yet.
He talks about local talent and the important of state tax incentives.
Shooting in metro Detroit provided the PG-rated "Oz" with roughly $40 million in Michigan film incentives . . . and a workforce whose depth surprised even Raimi, a Michigan native who knows first-hand the talent here.
In another sense, the project -- which was estimated to spend $105 million and included 683 Michigan hires -- was Raimi's gift to a place that remains close to his heart. He played an important role in getting "Oz the Great and Powerful" to come to the region and gave the local film community a best-of-times moment during its worst-of-times battle against Gov. Rick Snyder's cutback to the film incentives. . . .
"Michigan has really got great grips, woodworkers, plasterers, carpenters, film artisans, cameramen, lighting technicians," he says, reeling off a laundry list of crew positions. "Really, everything you need is in Michigan."
