• A Philadelphia Inquirer article today discusses the popularity of Philadelphia for film shoots lately. With M. Night Shyamalan shooting all his stuff in the area, and “Jersey Girl” starting up soon, the city’s got a lot of Hollywood type activity going on. The piece reveals that JG may need up to 3,000 extras (could be YOU!) and discusses why Philly got chosen over Toronto. Here’s a few tidbits:

• A feature film can have 45 speaking roles and more than a thousand extras. Unbreakable used 6,000 extras; Jersey Girl’s people have indicated they may need 3,000.
• Jersey Girl’s $35 million budget is deceptive because nearly half goes to pay Lopez and Affleck. But the film will spend up to $15 million on hotels, cars, food, building materials, fuel, phones and other requisites.
• Kevin Smith, the director of Jersey Girl, faced a similar dilemma. “Miramax was pushing ‘Toronto, Toronto, Toronto, where you can get 50 cents on the U.S. dollar,’ ” he said. “What pushed Philadelphia over the top for us was the proximity to New Jersey, the experienced crew base, and the film office, which sweetened the deal with incentives like helping us outfit a soundstage.”

Read it all right HERE!