Lights...camera...jobs!  The city of Detroit is taking its' cue from Hollywood and luring movie companies to the motor city.  Clint Eastwood shot "Gran Torino" there last year.  Several other films have been made since, and now MGM is shooting a movie called "Red Dawn" downtown.

It may surprise some people that filmmakers would want to shoot a movie in Michigan, instead of California or New York, though producers say the state's four seasons, great lakes and big city setting, make it an ideal location.  But the biggest incentive: Cash.  In April of last year, the state of Michigan enacted a special tax rebate of 42%, the largest in the country.  Since then, the Michigan Film Office says business is booming.  That means jobs--hundreds of them--both as part of making the films, or in supportive ways, such as set design, catering, or security.  "I think there is a big financial impact that we have on any location we're in.  Whenever you bring in a couple hundred people with disposable income to a city, it's going to have an impact.  Our people go to restaurants, they go to bars, they go to grocery store, they go to the mall on the weekends.  They spend money and aside from that, we also employ people." says Tripp Vinson, Red Dawn's producer.  Jobs are something the city of Detroit desperately needs right now, as the auto industry winds down.  While Vinson wouldn't say exactly how much money is being saved by the tax incentive, he did admit that its in the millions.   Michigan Film Office Director Janet Lockwood says thats a major draw. "In 2007 when we did not have any incentives worth mentioning we took in perhaps, with creative mathematics, 2-million dollars for feature films.  In 2008, in the 9 months that the incentives were in place, 125-million dollars"

And just to be sure Detroit gets more than its' share of the 15 minutes of fame, it now has its' own staff, to assist the filmmakers who choose to come there, and encourage new ones.  Detroit Film Office director Erica Hill says applications are pouring in, and making a big difference in the way Detroiters look at Detroit. "It's really changing the way that we look at industry here, it's a change from the auto industry and it allows our creative class to come forward and find themselves in the forefront of the industry here in the city" Hill says.  Other states and cities have tried to use tax incentives to attract the movie industry as well, but none have offered as much as Michigan.  "New Mexico, I believe offers 15 cents on the dollar, the Canadian cities like Vancouver and Toronto have been very aggressive but probably not paying anymore than 30 cents on the dollar" says urban studies and planning professor Robin Boyle of Wayne State University.

While Detroit isn't going to completely transform into Hollywood anytime soon, city leaders hope it will someday have a starring role in the movie industry.  "Red Dawn", which is a remake of a 1984 movie starring Patrick Swayze and Lea Thompson, will be filming through the end of the year.  Its an action/thriller that's supposed to hit theatres November 2010.  For more information on the movie featured "Red Dawn" visits Robert Lee's Live Shots Blog: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/10/21/a-red-dawn-casts-on-detroit/.

Watch Fox News correspondent Carina Sonn's report here.