{"id":703976,"date":"2025-12-17T02:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gov-phil-murphy-on-new-jerseys-two-big-studios-competing-for-warner-bros-may-the-best-team-win\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T02:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:40:11","slug":"gov-phil-murphy-on-new-jerseys-two-big-studios-competing-for-warner-bros-may-the-best-team-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gov-phil-murphy-on-new-jerseys-two-big-studios-competing-for-warner-bros-may-the-best-team-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Phil Murphy on New Jersey\u2019s Two Big Studios Competing for Warner Bros: \u201cMay the Best Team Win\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tIt was way too cold to break any sort of ground today. Especially the kind still covered by a few inches of snow, and especially on the waterfront property framing the Kill Van Kull, the tidal strait that separates Staten Island, New York and Bayonne, New Jersey \u2014 the future site of 1888 Studios.<\/p>\n

\n\t1888 Studios, named for the year Thomas Edison more or less invented the video camera (in New Jersey!), has been conceived as a 58-acre facility with 1.1 million square feet of production space across 23 soundstages, all of which will have 40-foot ceilings. Paramount, its anchor tenant, will occupy 285,000 of those square feet for a minimum period of 10 years. This morning, the gathered celebrated the groundbreaking with coffee, breakfast pastries and an unplowed parking lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince you couldn\u2019t break ground with a jackhammer this morning, the 10 VIPs shoveled fresh ceremonial soil instead. A few of them, including outgoing New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, gleefully tossed a few shovelfuls at the media<\/a>. He said it was for the photo op, but after eight years of press coverage, there was probably something cathartic at play too. I\u2019d do the same.<\/p>\n

\n\t1888 Studios\u2019 origins is such a New Jersey story. It was Jon Bon Jovi who first brought the site\u2019s developer Arki Busson together with Gov. Murphy and the first lady Tammy Murphy. No word on if it was at a diner, but probably. In 18-24 months, the governor estimates, it\u2019ll be operational. No word on if Bruce Springsteen played a role in bringing Lionsgate to Newark, where just five days ago ground was broken on the 12-acre Great Point Studios campus.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack to Bayonne, from inside a tent that I\u2019m told was heated, an endless train of important people (including both Murphys and Busson, no Bon Jovi) responsible for the development of the land \u2014 a former Texaco site, and thus \u201can environmental disaster,\u201d per the governor (it\u2019s been remediated) \u2014 spoke for more than an hour. They also gave us hoodies.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s head of global operations Jose Turkienicz called it \u201ca beautiful day for our industry and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cToday marks a major step forward\u201d toward \u201cscaling our production and expanding our slate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe local movers and shakers offered a lot of reminders of New Jersey\u2019s rich film history. Sen. Raj Mukherji summed it up best.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is the birthplace of film,\u201d he said. \u201cWe came first, and we\u2019re not \u2018Hollywood East.\u2019 Hollywood was and will now again return to its rightful place as \u2018New Jersey West.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe started a whole thing, which included Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis very Bayonne-ly announcing that New Jersey is \u201cnobody\u2019s stepchild.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tGov. Murphy was the headline act, but his wife was the real celebrity today.<\/p>\n

\n\tTuesday was a love fest for first lady Tammy Murphy, and she deserved every moment. Together, husband-and-wife, self-described BFFs and bankers-turned-public-servants Phil and Tammy Murphy brought the film and TV industry (back) to New Jersey by reinstating \u2014 and heavily promoting \u2014 one of the more generous tax incentive programs in the nation. Here, from the shores of Bayonne to the shores of Atlantic City (and everywhere in-between) qualified film, TV and digital productions are eligible for a tax credit of up to 40 percent their production expenses. Phil Murphy held the power, but Tammy Murphy had the passion.<\/p>\n

\n\tWithin Murphy\u2019s first year in office, he and the first lady travel<\/a>ed to California to bring their message directly to Hollywood. It was their \u201cJersey chutzpah\u201d that got it across, Tammy Murphy said. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is where you should be, so come here and we\u2019ll show you,\u201d she pitched the Paramounts of the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Murphys \u201cpersonally are responsible for everything good that\u2019s happ<\/a>ened in film and television (in New Jersey),\u201d NJEDA (New Jersey Economic Development Authority) CEO Tim Sullivan said on Tuesday. \u201cParticularly the first lady.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the stewardship of the Murphys and Sullivan, New Jersey has become a serious player in TV and film production. In the most-recent quarter, the Garden State saw the biggest growth year-over-year in filming count and production spend of any state in the U.S., per industry tracker ProdPro, with 24 projects shooting and $400 million in spend.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are now a very significant global player in film and television,\u201d Gov. Murphy said.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJimmy Davis, Flynn Busson, Tammy Murphy, Phil Murphy, Arki Busson at the 1888 Studios groundbreaking ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIvan Piedra Photography<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIf it feels like we\u2019ve been here before, well, we have. In May. <\/p>\n

\n\tForty-four miles south (over the Bayonne Bridge, across the Verrazano, down the Garden State Parkway\u2026) and seven months ago, Gov. Murphy, Ted Sarandos and I broke ground at Netflix\u2019s new Ft. Monmouth campus. OK, so I didn\u2019t get a shovel, but I did get a hardhat. (We all did.)<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix Fort Monmouth will have 500,000 square feet of production space, all to the streamer. The big question is: which of those two major studio spaces, Ft. Monmouth and 1888 Studios, will also house Warner Bros. productions upon opening? Currently, it\u2019s advantage Monmouth County of course, as Netflix has the actual accepted deal here. But Paramount won\u2019t go down without a fight \u2014 it\u2019ll fit in perfectly in Bayonne.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter<\/em> asked Murphy on Tuesday if he sees one site as the better future home to Warner Bros. productions this side of Burbank.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo. We know both studios at the highest levels \u2014 we\u2019ve known Netflix a lot longer, but deep respect for both houses,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those may the best team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(\u201cWe know them at the highest levels and they\u2019re another first-class operation,\u201d he said of Lionsgate, his new Newark anchor tenant.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe man is unflappable. Still, Murphy told us his \u201cfavorite movie of all time\u201d is The Godfather<\/em>, brought to us by Paramount. (Same.) Advantage: Paramount? In history, sure.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou walk into their offices \u2014 you walk into any of these offices \u2014 Netflix is the same way and all the big studios \u2014 and immediately you\u2019re overwhelmed by film [and] TV and it\u2019s really cool,\u201d Gov. Murphy told THR<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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