Miami ? Look up at the silver screen next summer and there’s a fair chance the high-octane car chase or slow pan over bikini-clad girls was filmed in the Sunshine State.

Sequels to the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence hit “Bad Boys” and Vin Diesel’s racing flick “The Fast And The Furious” are now in production in South Florida. “Out of Time,” starring Denzel Washington, also pitched its tent here this summer.

The same goes for television, with the CBS detective show “CSI: Miami,” and the Miami-produced dating show “Shipmates” under production. The HBO series “Baseball Wives” is in preproduction.

The growing number of film, television and cable productions using Florida as a backdrop this year has meant a significant rebound for the state’s film and entertainment industry after a three-year decline.

“Right now, it’s very busy. It had been a while since we’d done a feature film,” said Todd Bearden, general manager for Miami-based Paskal Lighting, which rents equipment used in filming.

The downturn was caused by the recession, a strike threat by Hollywood writers and the terrorist attacks, industry observers say.

“The initial impact after the 9-11 period was pretty extreme,” said Robert Grimm, the state’s acting film commissioner. “But that has kind of turned around and we’ve rebounded fairly well.”

Florida was also hurt by the late 1990s migration of Hollywood productions to Canada or overseas so-called runaway production and more film-friendly policies in states such as Louisiana, Texas and the Carolinas.

All over the map

In Miami-Dade County, which accounts for about half of Florida’s production work, the amount of money spent by productions was in decline until this year, said Jeff Peel, who heads the county’s office of film and entertainment. Total annual production spending fell to about $150 million last year, the lowest in a decade.

But the rebound is evident from reports by productions seeking to take advantage of a waiver in the state’s 6 percent sales tax. Total production spending declared for the first six months of 2002 came to $161.5 million, nearly equal to the entire amount declared last year, $162.3 million.

Actor Ismael Carlo, sitting at left, is approached by actors David Caruso, second from right, and Kim Delaney, right, during the shooting of a scene on the set of CSI:

Some of that growth comes from outside Miami-Dade. “Basic,” starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, shot for five months earlier this year in north Florida. “Sweet Home Alabama” did some filming in southwest Florida.

Central Florida remains a digital production and post-production hub, while television shows such as Nickelodeon’s “The New Beat The Clock” tape there.

Production incentives

Industry advocates hope the Legislature will give productions more incentives to film in the state. Legislatures in California, Maryland, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, among others, have passed or considered laws giving some form of rebate or waiver for studios to recoup production-related costs.

Florida’s Legislature passed a bill in 2000 to revamp the existing 6 percent tax rebate on production-related expenses by waiving the tax up front. The governor made it easier last year for other existing incentives to be applied to the industry.

But an effort to give productions a 10 percent reimbursement for filming in Florida died in the Senate this year. Grimm said film advocates would push in next year’s legislative session for a 15 percent rebate for feature film productions that spend at least $850,000, with a maximum reimbursement of $2 million.

Such an incentive would be on par with aggressive incentive legislation proposed in states such as California, but still far below incentives offered by other countries, such as Canada, which offers about a 24 percent rebate and has a favorable exchange rate.

Location, location, location

According to the state’s film office, feature films, television shows and commercials produced in Florida brought $4.5 billion in business to Florida companies last year. That amount is an estimate, which the state reached by using a formula to calculate the trickle-down effect from the estimated $1.6 billion spent by productions in 2001.

But money isn’t always the deciding factor for production companies who decide to shoot in Florida.

John Singleton, who directed 1997’s “Rosewood” in west Florida, said the story line of the “Furious” sequel was set in Miami from the beginning, and the amount of tax breaks or incentives was not an issue.

“It’s a creative choice to have it here,” he said. “The bottom line was never a consideration.”