19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
All the Hollywood Action Is Happening Everywhere But Hollywood
LOS ANGELES—If budget were all that mattered, 'Way of the Warrior Kid,' in which a former Navy SEAL helps his nephew deal with bullies, would likely have been filmed in Atlanta, Canada, Australia or Britain. But when producer Ben Everard showed the script to Chris Pratt, the star of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'Parks and Recreation,' Everard said he agreed to do it on one condition: 'You gotta shoot it in L.A. because my wife's pregnant.'
Everard counts that as a victory for his adopted hometown—and a warning. Increasingly, raw economics favor shooting projects somewhere else. For Los Angeles to get the nod often takes something idiosyncratic, like a star with an expectant wife. The 41-year-old Everard has made five of his seven films here, and in three, it was because of the star's family.
