It’s a wrap for the Triad’s latest starring role. The Ultimate Life finished production Tuesday, with the Manor House bed and breakfast in Tanglewood Park filling in for a 1960s hotel. The film is scheduled for a theatrical release in September. Winston-Salem has featured prominently in the production, with filming locations including the Chamber of Commerce, a corporate boardroom in Winston Tower and Brookstown Avenue, which was transformed into a 1960s street scene complete with vintage cars. For The Ultimate Life, the diversity of local scenery has been a benefit, with the state filling in for East Texas in the 1940s, 1960s and modern day. Other scenes have been filmed in Rockingham County and Spencer.
“I love to work in North Carolina,” said producer Rick Elridge. “People are very accommodating. We do as much as we can in the state. It’s a great place to work.” North Carolina’s film incentives package – a refundable tax credit of up to 25 percent on in-state spending for goods, services and labor on qualifying productions – is a big draw for filmmakers from out of state, Eldridge said. So is a talented crew base. About two-thirds of the movie’s 130-member crew was hired locally or from the surrounding region, he said. According to the N.C. Film Office, the production had a direct in-state spend of around $6 million and created approximately 450 job opportunities while filming in and around the region.