Movie company is ready to shout ‘action' in Plymouth

State and town officials want to fast-track permits for a proposed movie production studio on 1,000 acres of town-owned land off Route 25, despite some concerns about creating a ''Hollywood East.''

''We don't need to open up the (local newspaper) and find out Nicole Richie had a bad night at the Ming Dynasty and tried to swim off Plymouth Rock,'' planning board member Loring Tripp said in a meeting with selectmen to discuss the project.

The project is proposed by Good News Holdings of Sherman Oaks., Calif., a Christian movie production company formed two years ago by several former executives of other prominent movie companies.

The project will require about $50 million of work to create an interchange off Route 25 to the property in South Plymouth. It will also require the cooperation of state and federal highway officials, environmental agencies and state and town boards.

Company co-founders say the studio will be used for faith-based projects, but will also attract producers of other films.

The building plan - 1 million square feet of studio, production and office space, plus a village center with hotel, retail shops and restaurants - was called ''Project Julia'' early on, a reference to Julia Roberts. Company co-founder David Kirkpatrick, former president of Paramount Studios, has worked with Roberts. Her name was used because the group wanted to create a studio that any major star such as Roberts would want to use.

In a meeting this week of selectmen and planning board members, most favored the project, but several feared a highway interchange at Route 25 would provide a gateway for more development in the area.

Planning board member Lawrence Rosenblum said the highway ramp would immediately create land speculation.

''It's naive to think the interchange would serve Project Julia only,'' he said, suggesting long-term planning for the entire region.

But Economic Development Director Denis Hanks says Good News Holdings won't wait for a year of planning.

''We're in a race to make sure this project comes to Plymouth,'' he said. ''It's a new industry for the state and the whole Northeast. The jobs would be phenomenal. It will have a huge economic impact on Plymouth, the state and the region.''

The Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors this week voted unanimously to endorse the project, Hanks said.

It's one of the few times the board has taken a stance on a large community issue, he said.

Tripp was not the only town official concerned about the Hollywood influence on Plymouth.

''You need to become part of us; we can't become part of you,'' Selectman Kenneth Tavares told Good News Holdings co-founder Martha Cotton, who was at the meeting. ''This can't be Plymouth going Hollywood.''

Cotton said that most of town officials' concerns about traffic, design and land preservation have been addressed in preliminary drawings.

''It is not our intention to come in here like Bigfoot and take over,'' she said. ''We want to be integrated into the community. We intend to raise a crew base here. We're already working with trade unions for apprenticeship programs to help develop a local workforce.''

The company has hired Boston architects Gensler Associates as well as a development team that includes local lawyers Robert Betters and Edward Angley.

Discussions are under way regarding utility and road needs and preliminary designs for the studios, Cotton said.

''A lot is going on behind the scenes,'' she said. ''We intend to be ready for town meeting in the spring.''

Cotton said the company hoped to be open for business by 2010.

''But it will take as long as it takes,'' she said.

Good News' interest in building a studio in Massachusetts is linked to tax credits that the Legislature passed for the film industry in 2005.

The studio would be built on the same site where the failed $2 billion DreamWorld amusement park, including a monorail, an underground roller-coaster and a model spaceship, was proposed in the early 1990s.

Here's what they're scripting

<ul>

<li>1 million square feet of studio space, including 14 sound stages, commissary, visitor center, screening theater, production and administrative offices</li>

<li>405,000 square feet of building space in a village center, including hotel, retail shops, restaurants and studio housing</li>

<li>$300 million is the estimated cost of the project</li>

<li>2,000 jobs would be created</li>

</ul>

Sources: Gensler Associates and Good News Holdings

Tamara Race may be reached at trace@ledger.com.

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