Sitting on a barstool in the modern kitchenette space of her newly opened LEX Studios, owner Misdee Wrigley Miller reflected on her reasons to dive further into the entertainment industry with the first-of-its-kind space in Kentucky. Located off Woodhill Drive in Lexington, LEX Studios already is earning significant attention from Hollywood types.
“It’s truer today than ever before that entertainment transports you somewhere,” Wrigley Miller said. “There’s so much negativity in the world, and entertainment still is the one medium that will allow us to be transported to someplace that doesn’t worry us. And I think that’s healthy and very necessary. If I can be a part of helping create that, of giving people a few hours of just being taken someplace else, then that makes me happy.”
Perhaps there is no better person to help create this type of entertainment, right here in Kentucky—a state not typically known as a film and television hub. Wrigley Miller is a media veteran, internationally acclaimed horsewoman and owner of Lexington-based Wrigley Media Group, who is familiar with creating things. She is the great-granddaughter of William Wrigley Jr., who introduced Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint chewing gum in the late 19th century and became majority owner of the Chicago Cubs in 1921. In 1927, the Cubs’ home ballpark was renamed Wrigley Field in his honor. Standing on the legacy of an innovator and risk taker created a certain fortitude and drive in Wrigley Miller, who first came to Kentucky because of her love of horses. About 20 years later, LEX Studios was born.
LEX Studios is a 50,000-square-foot state-of-the-art production facility positioned to shine a light on the Bluegrass State, its creators and its possibilities, while boosting the economy and creating jobs. Located in the building that formerly housed Woodhill Cinemas, LEX Studios is equipped to become a national hub for creative innovation and media entertainment and is the largest facility of its kind in the state. It boasts three soundstages, well-equipped green rooms, numerous office spaces, dining areas for more than 150 people, ample parking and production support, plus optimal Central Kentucky characteristics such as easy proximity to interstates, airports and beautiful Kentucky scenery, a low cost of doing business, and a workforce. The previously abandoned building took four years to convert to LEX Studios.
The building easily rivals professional studios in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Chicago, with multiple spaces that can serve as different sets. In addition to being a large, one-stop production shop, LEX Studios is a resource for local companies for corporate videos, live streaming or corporate parties and receptions.
LEX Studios feeds a passion for Wrigley Miller, but she’s proud that it also feeds the Kentucky economy.
In 2021, the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development established the Kentucky Entertainment Incentive (KEI) to encourage the film and entertainment industry to choose locations in the Commonwealth for filming and production of motion picture and entertainment productions. It increases opportunities for Kentucky citizens to work in the entertainment industry and helps develop a production and post-production infrastructure in the state for film and touring Broadway show production facilities containing state-of-the-art technologies.
Wrigley Miller said the support has been overwhelming and bipartisan, noting that Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers and Kentucky Speaker of the House David Osborne have been “two of our biggest flag carriers” for the incentive. “It’s exciting when we can see tangible results in the legislation we pass in Frankfort,” said Stivers. “When we make Kentucky attractive to this dynamic and creative industry, the economic benefits are far reaching in both urban and rural areas. It means more local job opportunities, increased revenue for hotels and restaurants, and so many other services that support the entertainment industry. It’s a substantial economic win all the way around.”
A key case study for reinstating the film incentive was Wrigley Miller’s hit show Relative Justice that created a $2.5 million economic impact for Kentucky in just one season.
Kentucky is gaining attention from creators and producers who are utilizing the state’s competitive, 30- to 35-percent refundable tax credit for up to $10 million.
“Thanks to the Kentucky tax incentive, which is the most robust in the country, we are poised to bring much more film and television production to the state,” said Wrigley Miller, adding that former Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear championed the incentive during Gov. Steve Beshear’s time in office. “Enhanced production means business for caterers and restaurants, hotels, car rental companies, and new opportunities for talent throughout the state, as well as for those who are interested in a career in production.”
The films are already coming, and the new jobs will require some new training. LEX Studios is partnering with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to create expedited credentialing programs to ensure there are trained workers to fill the many production roles required to create films and television shows, such as set design, hair and makeup, and logistics.
Wilmore’s Asbury University offers a variety of bachelor- and master-level degrees in media communication, screenwriting and film. Earlier this year, Asbury became the nation’s only ARRI Certified Film School. Approximately 80 percent of top-grossing films are shot on ARRI cameras, and close to 65 percent of all award-winning films at the Academy Awards, Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival are shot on ARRI cameras.
For Jim Owens, Asbury’s dean of the School of Communication Arts, operations like LEX Studios mean more opportunities for his graduates here in the state. “We are excited about the growth of media opportunities in Kentucky,” he said. “For decades, our film students have had to leave the state if they wanted regular film jobs. Asbury students’ education has been greatly enhanced as more and more film projects land in Kentucky. They not only provide job opportunities for current students and alumni, but these film professionals are mentoring our students to help them move up through the industry.”
Film is the largest program in Asbury’s School of Communication Arts, and Owens said he’s excited to contribute to building a solid personnel base in Kentucky. Asbury students regularly work on summer productions that are either created internally or by Hollywood producers.
To help pull together these efforts, projects by Soozie Eastman of Louisville’s 502 Films, and others happening independently throughout Kentucky, Wrigley Miller said the next step for Kentucky is to establish a statewide film office.
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“We are really good at horses and bourbon and can be good at film,” she said, calling the Commonwealth a “sleeping giant” of film. “When the credit rolls at the end, those [names] represent jobs, and jobs that can and should be held by Kentuckians.”
Tim Sabo, the LEX Studios manager and producer, added that statewide advocacy and organization are key because “we’re trying to make the 70 miles between here and Louisville really small, because we have the space here. If the productions come, they will stay.”
With 25 years of experience, including field production for The Biggest Loser, Sabo moved to Kentucky from California to manage LEX Studios and has plans to turn it into a renowned, go-to United States production facility.
Sabo and Wrigley Miller bounced ideas off each other about shows and films they’d like to see created in LEX Studios. Cooking shows, horror movies that are “so bad, they’re good,” history of bourbon, and Civil War programs are all possibilities.
“My dream film is based on one of the great novels about the horse racing industry in Kentucky,” Wrigley Miller said. “I’d love to make a great Kentucky story.”
With three stages, the space is well suited for game shows, talk shows and other mid-size productions and independent films. “Could I have built one giant stage? Probably,” Wrigley Miller said. “I love Jerry Bruckheimer. He’s great, but he’s probably not going to bring a production here. So, who’s going to be my target audience? It’s going to be these smaller talk shows, game shows and independent films.”
These productions are the future, Sabo pointed out, because of disruptions in the film industry, the changing landscape of streaming, and artificial intelligence that will put the focus more on higher volume shows designed for streaming. “The big $150 million blockbusters are always going to be around, and that’s a whole different animal. But since there are so many streaming services now on every TV, they all have their own channels, and they all need programing,” he said.
Wrigley Miller confessed the upheaval caused her some moments of second guessing. “Just before COVID hit is when I decided to take the plunge and go ahead and build out this theater,” she said. “So, between COVID hitting, the strikes in Hollywood, AI, the massive consolidations, and now the budget cutting, I was wondering, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ I have literally gotten into the industry at one of the most difficult times. And thank goodness I have people like Tim, like [Wrigley Media’s CEO] Joe Livecchi, who said, ‘OK, we just got handed a big basket of lemons, and we’re going to make lemonade out of this.’
“The really great thing about being a very small, privately owned, one-woman company is that we’re able to pivot and make decisions and change our business model quickly. I think that’s going to be the strength of Kentucky and being in Kentucky, and because budget-conscious productions are going to come here. Everything is less expensive.”
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They are coming, and Sabo has seen that people who had moved to the West Coast to fulfill their Hollywood dreams now want to come home. “What also comes into play is you really have to start targeting people who are from this region,” he said. “People are leaving LA and going back to where they’re from. They want to go home. There is a mass exodus happening. I get emails almost every day from really solid LA people, and they’re like, ‘Thank you for this space; it’s given me a reason to come back to Kentucky.’ You’d be surprised by the people who are reaching out saying they have connections here and want to raise their families here.”
Plus, he added, “Once you’re in here, you’re sold. You don’t walk out of this space and leave saying, ‘Eh. it’s OK.’ ”
Production business is picking up, and LEX Studios is open for events such as field trips, table reads and pitch sessions for local creators to learn, network and be inspired.
“My goal for next year is to have 14 people sitting around this table figuring out what we’re doing next,” Sabo said.
For Wrigley Miller, LEX Studios is her “next.”
“My legacy is being on the ground floor of building a new industry in Kentucky that will help Kentucky and Kentuckians thrive,” she said.
Though she hails from Chicago by way of Arizona, which she called “a tough place to have a horse farm,” she said, “The world works in such mysterious ways. I was destined to be here in Kentucky.”