Hollywood producer on filming in Poland "It's a lot better than being in Detroit"

**FlyingJ** · August-07-11, 04:52 PM

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,2706583.story

**Patrick** · August-07-11, 05:04 PM

"More and more producers are like gypsies, going where the money is, and if I have to be stuck somewhere for five weeks without my family, Alvernia and Krakow are nice places to be," said Lauren Versel, producer of "Vamps." "It's a lot better than being in Detroit," she added, referring to the Michigan city's emergence as a production hub thanks to a sprawling new facility and generous tax incentives.

Lauren Versel....did this ungrateful bitch take any "incentives" from the people of Michigan?

**rjk** · August-07-11, 05:21 PM

I've never been to Krakow, maybe she's right.
I guess it's hard to say she's wrong since it's just her opinion.

**jtf1972** · August-07-11, 05:54 PM

Without the pleasure of seeing what Ms. Versel produces, I am certain that I have seen better things on the bottom of my shoe than this "Vamps" thing she is producing. Best wishes to her though!

lilpup · August-07-11, 06:04 PM

Since when do producers hang on the movie sets? Directors, yeah, but producers? Not usually.

**Thruster315** · August-07-11, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by rjk

I've never been to Krakow, maybe she's right.
I guess it's hard to say she's wrong since it's just her opinion.

I can see where she's right. After Governor Snyder yanked the incentives off the table- she did get a better deal over there. So it might not just be an opinion- it could be factual.

And I don't take this as an insult against Detroit. it'd be like saying California's got better looking redwood forests than Detroit- it just is. Nothing insulting or degrading to our area at all.

lilpup · August-07-11, 06:32 PM

VAMPS filmed here last summer [[stayed at the Book Cadillac, IIRC). They just edited in Poland.

**Detroitej72** · August-07-11, 07:18 PM

Well, speaking as someone whose family came from Poland and now call Detroit home, I'd like to see movies filmed in both locations!

Seriously though, we can't get bent out of shape every time some out of town clown talks us down. Besides, do we really care what a 2nd or 3rd rate producer thinks about us?

**davewindsor** · August-08-11, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by Patrick

"More and more producers are like gypsies, going where the money is... "It's a lot better than being in Detroit,"

Who cares what she says. She's a sell out. Basically, an eccentric entreprenuer sold his radio station for hundreds of millions to a German company to finance building this Alvernia movie studio in Krakow a year ago and the only way he can get anyone to use his studio is to finance the movies himself. What a novel idea. Have the studio finance the movie. No one in the US wanted to finance the project and this guy was desperate enough to bring film makers from the US and has to finance it.

Obviously, Versel is gonna promote whoever finances her movies. She's no different than the athlete who takes cash to endorse any product. Her opinion isn't even worth the two cents of paper it's printed on. Her downgrading of Detroit means nothing. Why should the State of Michigan finance her crap movies. I predict her movie will tank and a bunch of this studios' movies will tank at the box office and this guy will be bankrupt in a year and so much for the movie boom in Poland.

**hudkina** · August-08-11, 06:28 AM

I'm sure if she were being interviewed in Detroit she'd say "Oh it's such a great city, the people are so friendly, blah, blah, blah" crap that most people who come here say.

**rb336** · August-08-11, 07:57 AM

the comment is, as far as I can tell, completely without context. In what way was it better than detroit? Cheaper? fewer regulations? no one here knows

**iheartthed** · August-08-11, 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

the comment is, as far as I can tell, completely without context. In what way was it better than detroit? Cheaper? fewer regulations? no one here knows

I'm pretty sure she meant that Krakow is a more interesting place to be than Detroit.

"More and more producers are like gypsies, going where the money is, and if I have to be stuck somewhere for five weeks without my family, Alvernia and Krakow are nice places to be," said Lauren Versel, producer of "Vamps." "It's a lot better than being in Detroit," she added, referring to the Michigan city's emergence as a production hub thanks to a sprawling new facility and generous tax incentives.

**skyl4rk** · August-08-11, 08:09 PM

Krakow is pretty nice.

**Django** · August-09-11, 01:46 AM

Just one persons opinion. One person may prefer Poland over Detroit another Detroit over Poland. Seems the thread title was taken a bit out of context.

I like the Redwood analogy by Thruster as well as the incentive facts.

Someone who knows her may think to themself, "Gee, if she doesnt like Detroit, Id probably love it" LOL.

**Gistok** · August-09-11, 02:07 AM

I have to agree with davewindsor....

... but for the record... Krakow is a beautiful and historic city. It was the capital of Poland until about 450 years ago when it was moved to Warsaw. It has a large picturesque medieval quarter, and its' castle hill contains the city's cathedral... which houses the Pantheon of tombs of ancient Polish kings.

It's like Prague... only not as large...

**canuck** · August-09-11, 08:09 AM

Maybe she was pissed at Snyder's incentives reductions. Either way, it is not a classy thing to piss on Detroit. Like all others who do, it is a cheap easy shot on a great city that has endured more than its share of hardships.

On the other hand, Poland has a strong tradition of great filmmakers and technicians. They have some of the best film schools in eastern Europe [[Lodz). The trend of producing american backed movies in Easter European countries started a decade ago and it is a buoyant thing like most other places. There are fallow years and technicians go with the flow. But they are in it for the long run.

DetroitPole · August-09-11, 12:35 PM

"More and more producers are like gypsies, going where the money is, and if I have to be stuck somewhere for five weeks without my family, Alvernia and Krakow are nice places to be," said Lauren Versel, producer of "Vamps." "It's a lot better than being in Detroit," she added, referring to the Michigan city's emergence as a production hub thanks to a sprawling new facility and generous tax incentives."

There is nothing cryptic about this and it is not hard to understand.

As other posters have pointed out, it is a nice city. Why?
It is walkable - immensely so - the main square is shared by pedestrians and motor vehicles. There is good, reliable, clean transit. There is no crime to speak of. They have preserved their history and infrastructure - which has survived countless wars, yet we quickly tear down whatever has been vacant for more than a decade. You can not only easily get around the city in a tram, you can take a train to virtually any major city in the country OR to multiple other countries. There are endless breweries, shops, grocers, interesting eateries everywhere - not just in the tourist area. Few people in our region seem to think these vital assets are a priority.

You can take a bus ride from the Renaissance town square to a remote resort town in the beautiful Tatry mountains in the time it would take you to take a fucking SMART bus from our mostly vacant downtown to a grey strip mall in Troy. Catching my drift here?

You can't blame a person for being honest. Be honest with yourself - where would YOU rather be stuck for a few weeks? Aside from the language barrier, and many of the young folks speak English.

It also amazes me that a [[until recently) relatively poor Eastern bloc country can pull maintain a livable city while we have the unchanging crap that is Metro Detroit. I know people around here have a variety of opinions, like that places like either Troy or Midtown are cool, but they have virtually nothing that most real cities don't take for granted, and the others are a hell of a lot more livable in countless ways.

**Gistok** · August-09-11, 01:01 PM

Probably the best reason Krakow has such a well preserved center [[unlike the WWII devastation of most other Polish cities) was likely because Hitler liked it... just like he did Prague and Oxford England... and ordered his troops and Luftwaffe to leave them alone...

**ghettopalmetto** · August-09-11, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Krakow is a beautiful and historic city. It was the capital of Poland until about 450 years ago when it was moved to Warsaw. It has a large picturesque medieval quarter, and its' castle hill contains the city's cathedral... which houses the Pantheon of tombs of ancient Polish kings.

It's like Prague... only not as large...

The difference is that, even in a city like Gdansk or Warszawa, which were heavily bombed during World War II, the Poles spent millions of dollars to reconstruct their cities exactly as they were prior to the War. Since construction drawings weren't exactly available for the medieval structures in the city centers, reconstruction was based on photographs and memory. Even today, some 66 years after the War ended, restoration continues on Malbork Castle, the historic home of the Teutonic Knights. In the United States, it would have been levelled for a Walmart.

Detroit has taken the opposite tack, spending billions of dollars to construct cheap plastic houses in the hinterlands, undermine its historic center, and level the remains into an endless sea of parking lots. Never mind that an 80-year-old building in Detroit is considered "obsolete" [[and sometimes "structurally unsound"), yet major cities in Poland are somehow able to occupy buildings that are well over 700 years old.

Perhaps the quote is a rip on Detroit. But it wouldn't be undeserved. We're a proud nation, but the Poles have pride.

**ghettopalmetto** · August-09-11, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Probably the best reason Krakow has such a well preserved center [[unlike the WWII devastation of most other Polish cities) was likely because Hitler liked it... just like he did Prague and Oxford England... and ordered his troops and Luftwaffe to leave them alone...

You know, I've heard that too, but I'm wondering if it doesn't have more to do with Krakow's [[and Prague's) proximity to heavily-industrialized Silesia.

**Gistok** · August-09-11, 03:03 PM

GP.... funny you should mention "Schlesien" [[the German name for Silesia)... I heard that many Germans were buying up old family homesteads in former German areas of Poland [[such as Silesia, East Prussia, and Pommerania)... don't know how widespread that is... it was mentioned by an acquaintance born in "Schlesien" in the 1920s. I wonder if it's happening in the former Sudetenland area of the Czech Republic?

But yes... the proximatey to the former German "Eastern Ruhr" industrial area of Poland may have had a lot to do with it.