NEW YORK – Mel Brooks (search) will shoot the film version of his hit Broadway musical "The Producers" (search) at a new movie studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Brooks, a Brooklyn native, said new financial incentives and his love of New York helped persuade him to shoot at the recently opened Steiner Studios.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki (search) credited new state and local tax credit programs with attracting Brooks' film to New York.
Brooks had another reason.
"The bagels, just the bagels alone," he said. "You go to Toronto, they're mushy."
"The Producers: The Movie Musical" will star Nathan Lane (search), Matthew Broderick (search), Nicole Kidman (search) and Will Ferrell (search). The $45 million production will begin shooting in late February, Brooks said Tuesday at a press conference at Steiner Studios.
Lane and Broderick will repeat their roles as the rapscallion producer Max Bialystock and his nebbish accomplice Leopold Bloom. Brooks is producing the new film, to be directed by Susan Stroman, who directed and choreographed the stage show.
The stage musical was based on the original 1968 movie by Brooks starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder as two producers who set out to swindle investors by creating a musical flop. Brooks wrote the original film, which became a Broadway success in 2001 and won a record 12 Tonys.
Steiner Studios is the centerpiece of the city's efforts to revitalize the Navy Yard, a World War II shipbuilding hub that had lapsed into disrepair. Another five films are expected to be shot there soon, a Steiner official said, although they have yet to be publicly announced.
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