Long before the state legislature passed a much-discussed film incentive, DJ Perry and Lansing-based Collective Development Incorporated (CDI) Productions were turning out films in Lansing. Now, their reputation as a solid and inventive production company has landed them a deal with Lionsgate Home Video.
On October 28, CDI Productions and Lionsgate Home Video will release Ghost Town: The Movie, a film by another local, Dean Teaster. The $1 million, 1800s western was filmed in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, but CDI spent about $100,000 in Michigan 
while making the film.
“We’ve grown into a studio-respected SAG (Screen Actors Guild) signatory company,” says DJ Perry with CDI Productions. “Our output for distribution is lining up with both Lionsgate and Weinstein Company, formerly owners of Miramax. We’re looking at theatrical output, with MGM now on our current project, a period thriller entitled “Wild Michigan.”
While CDI Productions was making films before the incentives rolled through, they certainly didn’t hurt business.
“The day the film incentive bills passed my phone started ringing,” Perry says. “I’ve been swamped by emails of folks looking for work and possible co-productions. Our immediate growth projection is to get all three CDI directors working back to back. We could easily handle two pictures a year and perhaps a TV series.”
A TV series is a possibility with CDI’s fall film, “Wild Michigan.” They also have a publishing deal for the novel adapted from the screenplay by Lansing poet, Dee Freeman.
“Lansing, Michigan, could really become a “Cool City,’” Perry says.
DJ Perry and his team are also making national news and were recently featured in a MarketWatch article.
Source: DJ Perry, CDI Productions
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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