FRANKFORT, Ky. — “Dead Man’s Wire,” a $13 million feature-length film directed by Werner Hertzog and set to star Academy Award winner Nicholas Cage, is being produced in Kentucky with support of a state incentive program.
Cabinet for Economic Development staff determined that a total eligible tax incentive amount for this film is nearly $4 million; Kentucky initiated film and TV production incentive more than a decade ago.
The Kentucky Entertainment Incentive will support Him & Her Productions LLC, a single purpose entity created for the production of this movie, whose announced production was set to begin around Feb. 29 and is expected to end by April 26.
“Dead Man’s Wire,” set in 1977, is based on a true story of the 63-hour stand-off that took the world by storm, according to information provided during the monthly Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) meeting in February.
The movie will lay out the story of a 63-hour drama that began when Anthony G. “Tony” Kiritsis, 44, entered the Indianapolis office of Richard O. Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Co. on Feb. 8, 1977, and took him hostage with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun wired with a “deadman’s switch.” A wire from Kiritsis’ neck would trigger the shotgun whose barrels were against Hall’s head if the gunman went down. Cage is playing Kiritsis, who demanded $5 million and a personal apology from Hall for allegedly cheating him out of money he was “owed,” as well as that no charges or prosecution to be made toward him.
Hertzog and Cage worked together in the past on the 2009 film “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” according to movie news website World of Reel. That movie was reviewed as a wild, over-the-top story of a drug-addicted policeman investigating murders while fighting major demons of his own. Hertzog is a German film-maker known for directing both fiction and non-fiction works, such as “Fitzcarraldo” and “Grizzly Man.”
The “Dead Man’s Wire” film production includes Austin Kolodney, who wrote the film, as well as Cassian Elwes, a British film producer, who has 100% ownership of the Him & Her Productions company.
Information presented at the KEDFA meeting showed the movie’s anticipated expenditures will total about $13 million, with approximately $10 million going toward payroll, of which an estimated $7.5 million would go to non-Kentucky resident, above-the-line production crew members.
The full anticipated production crew is set at 475 total crew members, with 420 of those being Kentucky residents.
