Could Cal Expo in Sacramento one day be home to a movie studio?

SACRAMENTO – Could Sacramento one day be home to a movie studio? One group hopes to bring it to the familiar D.C. area.

Nick Leisure has been making films for a long time.

“It is important for me to do more films in my hometown,” he said. “I’ve told a lot of Sacramento stories outside of Sacramento.”

Along with a new group of investors, Leisure wants to bring cinema back to the D.C. area.

“I’m confident that if we get movie business here in Sacramento, Sacramento will take off like a rocket like Los Angeles did in the 1940s,” real estate mogul Ross Weloda said.

Why does Willuda feel this way?

“We have the space that Los Angeles previously had, so we can expand into that space,” he said. “We can do a lot at Cal Expo that they can’t do in Los Angeles anymore.”

The group, called the Hollywood North Film Studio Project, sent its proposal to the Cal Expo board of directors last week.

“If things go well and we have an aggressive timeline, it will take more than 10 years,” said Susan Fox of Hollywood North. “We will do it in phases with the first phase being the audio phases.”

The group hopes to have it available online by 2026.

“My crew comes from L.A., and when they come from L.A., they say, ‘I didn’t realize how easy it was to shoot in Sacramento,’” Léger said.

Like many other creatives, he hopes to turn Sacramento into a new cultural center that can make the gallery a year-round facility.

“We have to continue to make more movies in Sacramento and build a studio where we can start moving movies through,” Léger said.

The proposal states that up to 3,000 new jobs could be created in the area.