-Well, Mark Wahlberg has told multiple media outlets that he moved to Southern Nevada to spend more time with his kids and give them a better life.

Now, last September, he also told "Lights, Camera, Vegas" host Rachel Smith that he wants to build a film studio and make Las Vegas, quote, Hollywood 2.0, end quote.

But is that something that is already happening even without his star power?

Well, joining us to talk about the state of the film industry in Nevada are Andi Isaacs, veteran Hollywood production executive and now Associate Professor of Film at UNLV.

Go Rebels!

And Danette Tull, production and communications manager for the Nevada Film Office.

Thank you both so much for joining us.

I'm so happy that both of you are here.

Let's start with Mark Wahlberg.

Again, getting Nevada-- Las Vegas getting a lot of attention when he made that comment.

Now, he actually already started production here.

He just wrapped up a film.

And the Nevada Film Office tweeted this: It said, "Mark Wahlberg films, massive hit at the Plaza, other locations as well."

And it goes on to say, "We may have known a little something about this NDA."

And then you did go @mark _wahlberg, "Let's do some more soon."

This is exciting news for Nevada and the film industry.

(Danette Tull) Absolutely.

We've heard a little something about Mark Wahlberg moving here.

I mean, it's been all over the place, right?

It's no secret.

Very exciting.

We would love to see it become Hollywood 2.0.

We're 100% supportive of it.

If, you know, groundbreaking happens and, you know-- We're excited for it.

We're here to see it.

We're here.

We're all over it.

So, yeah, I think it would be amazing if that were to happen.

-And you did have that NDA, Nondisclosure Agreement.

You couldn't talk about what he was doing, but it's out now.

-It's out now.

It was kind of just a little bit of a joke on the inside, honestly, because many times when big movies come here, it's the worst kept secret in town, although you know, we've all signed an NDA.

So every now and then you'll see talent out there, you'll see the properties tweeting about it and talking about what just shot there.

It's almost kind of-- We still can't say anything.

We're just kind of sharing what's out there.

But, yeah, most of the things that come here, we can't talk about.

-Oh, okay.

Andi, you have some other great productions.

We'll talk about that in just a little bit.

First of all, welcome to Las Vegas.

You've only been here since November.

You've been in the business for many, many years.

Talk about your background and what you think of when you hear somebody say they want to make Las Vegas Hollywood 2.0.

(Andi Isaacs) I actually started as a coffee person on Bonfire of the Vanities and kind of worked my way up.

Eventually, I was the head of physical production for Summit Entertainment.

So we made all the Twilight movies, and I was at Disney before then as a production executive.

I really am a kind of logistics and business and finance person when it comes to how we make the actual films.

And I love the idea of Las Vegas becoming Hollywood 2.0.

It's really kind of poised for it.

There's a lot of locations available.

When you're thinking about becoming a production center, it's not just going to be about the Strip.

We have really beautiful parks and schools and just so many different areas that you can go to.

And interior spaces and-- But I think, to be quite honest, the most important thing about creating that kind of production center is going to revolve around a tax incentive, a slowly growing sustainable tax incentive.

And that's a big deal.

And let's talk about that.

Because on your website, it does say, you know, "Comparing tax incentives is like comparing apples and oranges."

What needs to improve when it comes to our tax incentives?

-Sure.

So our program, honestly, is not as competitive as programs in other states.

And we do see some runaway production because of that.

So if you were to give the analogy of a football game, for example, our state is still sort of in the bleachers in terms of that process.

So we're looking to just improve it enough to get out there, get in the field, play the game.

-And what do you think, Andi, needs to be done?

-I think it's actually in a really good place right now.

For me, the way that I believe that it becomes sustainable is that it has to be an economic development.

It has to grow slowly.

You can't just have a giant movie ride in and take your entire fund.

So capping the productions and the refunds that are available for the productions is key.

And it's trying to just strive to get-- What happens if you get a bunch of 20- to $30 million movies coming annually, naturally, the industry will grow.

Vendors will come.

Campers will come.

People will build stages.

But most importantly, it brings a lot of money into the state for independent filmmakers.

They get a lot of opportunity because now we have the studios coming in and union films coming in and more vendors and more equipment and all those sorts of things.

So it does bring a lot of money into the arts.

And it becomes an economic development for the state itself.

-Which is so interesting and so important more than anything, because we are really working hard to diversify our economy.

Let's talk about what you're doing.

And again, it's not just the productions coming into town, more than 400 productions.

Everything from commercial shoots to videos, music videos, what else do you have going on?

-Any sort of production that comes through here like you said, music videos, feature films, independent feature films, still photoshoots if you have-- Like Vogue Italy , they're part of the economic development as well.

And then you have all the, you know, peripheral sort of content surrounding all the sports events.

And you know, all of those things also are job creators and also content.

-And the Nevada Film Office is part of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.

Let's talk a little bit about with this legislative session, there is a bill that is being drafted right now, correct, when it comes to the film industry?

-Yes, there is a placeholder bill called SB 28, and GOED had put that forth last summer in an attempt to improve the program.

There's been a lot of community interest, a lot of upswell in the community about, about this particular issue, which is exciting.

It's not done yet.

We're at a strange position right now.

I'm actually under NDA, so I can't discuss most of it with you, but I can say that we're looking at hopefully coming up with some language that will be beneficial for the industry and for the state as well.

-And you'll be keeping a close eye on that, as well as we all will be keeping a close eye on that.

And let's talk a little bit about when it comes to comparing to, our tax incentives to other states.

We've talked off camera about New York.

We're hearing a lot about Atlanta, New Orleans.

Again, what are they offering that we're not offering?

-What people forget is that New York and Georgia and New Orleans spent a good 15 years building up their crew base, building up their vendors, building up their economy so that then they could offer a very generous rebate.

And it's worked for them.

And I think that that's the most successful plan is that you build it up to really have a production center, and then increase the, the caps and the things that are available for an incentive.

-And then for the longest time, we were hearing about Canada.

-So Canada was very smart.

When they created an incentive, they invited everybody.

And they said, "Train us."

And everybody went up to Canada and trained everybody on what to do.

And then Canada just said, "Okay.

The border is closed now.

So we have our cruise, and you can't come here anymore."

It was smart.

There's probably 30% of the production that's done out of Hollywood is done in Canada.

-Now, another thing that we had talked about is the fact that again, Nevada, we have so much desert, whereas, let's say New York.

Their infrastructure might not be able to-- -There's no room left to grow in New York or Atlanta or even New Orleans at this point.

You could build 15 soundstages here without blinking an eye.

Georgia, around 19,000 people, 19,000 crew, went to Georgia when they started the incentive.

Most of, you know, the places that have had sustainable incentives have had huge growth just in people moving to work in the industry there.

So it's definitely an economic development.

-And let's talk a little bit about Nevada, because I love your Nevada Film Office.

Your motto is: Your imagination, our locations.

And you have on your website, there's like this virtual map.

You go and you click on it to see all the different locations.

It's not just Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.

So many different locations.

-Yeah, that's right.

I mean obviously the Las Vegas Boulevard is a destination for film and for visitors too, so it's that alone brings, brings in production.

But there are so many other, to echo Andi's point.

So they're great locations.

We've got Mount Charleston, we've got lakes, we've got obviously desert, we have snow-capped mountains in Northern Nevada right now.

And a lot of people don't put that together.

"There's snow in Nevada?"

Yeah, there's actually snow in Nevada.

We've got rural areas like Ely, who has attracted production just because of the working steam train that they have up there.

So we get production throughout the state.

-And speaking of Northern Nevada, Jeremy Renner, right before his snowplow accident-- He's recovering.

We wish him the best.

He did tweet something out recently, which was a picture with some wonderful folks from Reno.

He actually shot something up there.

-Yeah.

He's a resident up there.

And they just wrapped a show recently called Rennervations , and that did hire a number of our Northern Nevada crew.

So we were excited about that.

He was just out in the media yesterday saying that show is going to be on Disney+ April 12.

So it's really exciting.

-That is exciting.

Now, I do want to get back to you real quick about locations and shooting because when we were getting prepared for this interview, we did talk a little bit about cautionary tales when it comes to those tax incentives.

And you mentioned specifically Ohio.

Let's talk about that.

-So Ohio really wanted a tax incentive.

And unfortunately, what they did was they didn't have caps.

They had a big fund, and Avengers came in and Captain America came in, and they wiped out the fund.

And there was no real economic growth.

So now they're almost nonexistent as far as tax incentives go.

I think one of the most important things-- and I know that the Film Office thinks about this-- is that it's growing at a sustainable rate.

And we're just poised to be an incredible production center.

And the actors feel very comfortable coming here.

That's something that's, you know, sure, you can go to Romania and make a movie for a 15th of what it would cost, but actors don't necessarily want to go.

And actors love coming here.

They love coming here.

It's comfortable.

It's fun.

It's a 45-minute flight.

It's really very much poised to be a huge production center.

-Oh, that's great.

Another thing I do want to talk to both of you, CinemaCon coming back to Vegas next month.

This is the official convention of the National Association of Theater Owners.

Let's talk about the future of theatrical releases.

I see a smile.

That's a good thing, right?

-I truly believe theatrical will boom again.

I think that, you know, the industry, it's like a bellows.

And most of my students are like, "What's a bellows?"

But it expands and it contracts.

And during COVID and during streaming and the popularity, it took a little while for everybody to figure out how they were going to do this.

But theatrical is like nothing else.

And the studios will definitely start concentrating on theatrical again.

The streaming is condensing and contracting.

And I just think that's fun.

I think it'll be a lot of fun.

-And there is nothing like watching a film on a big screen.

When I was at The Beverly, you saw my big smile.

That's why I was smiling, because those memories, you know?

I mean, you can watch it at home streaming, but nothing like a movie theater.

-I agree with you wholeheartedly.

I think it's great.

It's the way that movies were meant to be watched, in my opinion.

So yeah.

-And let's talk a little bit about creating opportunities for the next generation of filmmakers.

That's something that you're very passionate about.

You're doing that right now with the Moving On Club.

Let's talk about that.

-One of the things that I think film schools around the nation have started thinking about was, How do you bridge that gap from study to industry to work?

And UNLV was looking for that.

That's the, you know, it immediately became a home to me, because that's something that they really embrace.

And I teach a class of the business of Hollywood, to understand how studios work, how unions work, how production works.

But what I found was a lot of kids have to leave.

They have to move.

They have to move to California or New York or Georgia.

So I created a club called the Moving On Club, which teaches them everything from how to sign a lease to how to find a job, the entry levels that are available, and hopefully, you know, they'll go and they'll learn and we'll pass a tax incentive and they'll come back here and make movies for the rest of their lives.

-I love that.

That's a good movie.

I'm envisioning that's gonna be a great movie with a great outcome because again, UNLV's film program has grown throughout the years, and it's been so wonderful to see so many success stories coming out of UNLV.

DeCastro Sisters, shout out to them.

Real quick: Oscar Week, hosted by Las Vegas' own Jimmy Kimmel.

Some fun facts about movies shot here in Las Vegas, in Southern Nevada?

-Sure.

Some people don't know, but Nevada has four Oscar-winning films that have shot here for Best Picture Oscars: One is Godfather I ; the sequel, Godfather II ; Rain Man ; and Nomadland .

So Nevada-based films, but partially shot here.

-Okay.

So we have about a minute.

So I need to ask your favorite films or productions or music videos filmed in Las Vegas.

Who wants to go first?

-Mine is The Godfather .

There's no denying it.

-I'm gonna have to go with The Godfather .

-Really?

Okay.

That's interesting.

Don't judge me.

Comedy-wise, I have to say Austin Powers International Man of Mystery .

[laughter] -That's great.

-And Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek because actually was-- Many, many moons ago, I was an extra in that movie.

You see the back of my head.

[laughter] -Excellent!

-But again, it's been great to see how Las Vegas, again-- So many films, and that's the beauty of our city and our state is that we're internationally known.

I remember watching Mexican novelas, Selena novelas, soap operas.

And they were, "Vamos a Las Vegas!"

And sure enough, they come to Las Vegas, right?

-Yeah.

There's always a reason to write that in the script, right?

Even if it has nothing to do with the movie at all, they'll figure a way in reality shows especially to, like, "Let's go to Vegas for the weekend," or-- Yeah.

There's always a reason to come to Vegas, which is why we get so much production surrounding Las Vegas Boulevard.

-Thank you so much for being here.

Again, something we're also very passionate about, and this is a callout to Mark Wahlberg, right?

We're going to hold him accountable.

-If you're watching-- I'm sorry, this camera.

If you're watching, have your people call our people.