Duval County

Scene from movie shot in downtown Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Monday night, Quantenell Walker shot a scene from the movie, “Boss Moves.”

“It’s a movie about best friends betraying best friends and calculating steps and trying to get revenge on others,” she said.

Walker said she chose to shoot one of the scenes in her hometown. And, she is hoping more producers will do the same

“It’s a beautiful place to film. There’s a lot of places that we haven’t even seen,” said Walker.

Florida used to entice producers with financial incentives. But after it went away a few years ago, many production companies in Florida moved to other states.

“For the past decade or so it’s been increasingly difficult for Florida to compete in the traditional film and television market,” said John Lux, executive director of Film Florida.

Lux said in the last several years, Florida has lost more than 70 major film and television projects, which would’ve spent more than $1.3 billion here. While Florida had 15 major projects in the last year or so, Georgia had 399, and those projects spent nearly $3 billion.

There have been multiple attempts to revive the state incentive program. Lux said he’s hopeful for the latest proposal.

“Projects would submit and apply and those with the highest return on investment for the state of Florida, would be chosen and could receive up to $2 million of a cash rebate based on their expenditures and Florida hires,” he said.

Todd Roobin, with Jacksonville Film and Television Office said they are constantly working with all types of productions; Europe and Asia. He said it’s been steady and other projects are looking to come here.

Walker said “Boss Moves” will be released early 2020 on Amazon Prime.