New York Approves Massive Film Complex

New York's City Council approved a film studio company's plan to build a $1.2-billion complex of sound stages, office towers, apartments, shops and parkland on the Queens waterfront.

The project, by Silvercup Studios, where the HBO series "The Sopranos" is filmed, was approved on a 49-0 council vote. The complex calls for 18 movie studios as well as 1,150 apartments, including 150 units of low-income housing.

The production industry employs 100,000 New Yorkers and generates $5 billion for the city annually. The new neighborhood, dubbed Silvercup West by its developers, shows how the city is expanding its movie industry with the lure of tax incentives that help filmmakers reduce the cost of production.