Miami has largest filmmaking footprint ever

Since taking on the role of Miami-Dade County’s chief of film and entertainment in February, Marco Giron has landed a deal to host one of Apple TV+’s latest series, as his team launches a countywide outreach initiative tour.

Warner Bros. Television’s “Bad Monkey,” starting Vince Vaughn, has chosen Miami-Dade County as its production headquarters. The series is a drama written and executive produced by Bill Lawrence, which has received a 10-episode series order from Apple TV+.

Based on Carl Hiaasen’s popular 2013 novel, “Bad Monkey” tells the story of Andrew Yancy, a one-time detective who is demoted to a South Florida restaurant inspector.

“Their footprint is, definitely from an economic standpoint, the largest we’ve ever had,” Mr. Giron said. “And I’ll tell you this, it’s the largest for Florida because we’ve had movies like Bad Boys and Miami Vice that have filmed here, but this is a TV series and it’s large in scale with about $100 million in total investment.”

Warner Bros. production worked out a deal and is currently taking up a large warehouse in Doral, which it retrofitted into a massive soundstage and is hiring thousands to operate such a production, he said. They’re filming at Crandon Park, Miami Beach and down in the Homestead area.

“When a production is shooting here, whether it be a commercial or a TV series or even print, it gets broadcasted or it gets printed all over the world and uses Miami-Dade County as the backdrop, which lends itself for those marketing dollars that we’re getting for possible tourism,” he said. “And also, when productions come in, we want to make sure that they’re staying in the hotels here, so it impacts them. It is a trickledown effect in every single way that you can imagine, and it’s a thriving industry.”

In the next few months, Mr. Giron will be touring production facilities, soundstages, schools, and universities as well as meeting with film industry stakeholders, he said, and local city leaders.

“It’s basically an outreach initiative to get feedback because I need to hear what the industry is saying on what is going to work better for the business and create more economy,” added Mr. Giron, who came to the county from the City of Doral, where he served as the deputy director of communications and film liaison.

It’s not just the film industry – music industry studios and businesses are also on the agenda, he said. “We have a big impact in the Latin market when it comes to music, like the Estefans.”

“This tour is needed to better understand the landscape right now and then build a strategy around the key components,” Mr. Giron explained, “which are continued production, hiring Miami-Dade County residents and educating productions on our incentive programs.”