Advocate: Incentives, weather will reinvigorate Tucson film industry

Classic Old West films like "Tombstone" and Rio Lobo with John Wayne have something in common.

Those movies were filmed in Arizona and specifically in Tucson, where the film industry is slowly starting to resume after the SAG-AFTRA strikes and the impact of COVID-19.

Peter Catalanotte, director of Film Tucson, says Arizona offers a wide variety of Western town locations.

“Some of the reasons Westerns end up in Tucson is for one, we have great looking Western towns here. They’ve been used for various TV shows and movies. So they have an authentic 'Wild West' look. … We have several different Western towns,” said Catalanotte.

Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were among the stars who filmed there.

“... We just had so much filming going from the '40s onward. Things started to slow down in the late '90s, when Canada came up with film incentives. … Everything was going to Canada. But now, Arizona has new film incentives a little under 2 years old,” said Catalanotte.

The Arizona weather will also have a strong impact on the film making industry.

"We're going to do quite well because of the sunshine Tucson has, our unending sunshine, we have a dependable hard working crew base and we have gorgeous unique locations that you can't find anywhere else," said Catalanotte.

Catalanotte says new incentives will help increase film production overall in Arizona.