TUCSON, Ariz. — The 1984 comedy “Revenge of the Nerds” was shot in and around the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, which was known as ‘Adams College’ in the movie.Star Robert Carradine spoke with KGUN via Zoom.Carradine says he and co-star Anthony Edwards even showed up to the UA campus before filming to rush fraternities in character as nerds, Lewis and Gilbert.“The guy goes, ‘Hey Biff, these guys want to rush.’ And Biff goes, ‘No way!’ And that’s how we knew we had nailed .
“Filming is lured by incentives,” said Peter Catalanotte, the director of Film Tucson. “When Revenge of the Nerds was here, it was a different ballgame.” Last year, Arizona officially started offering tax rebates up to $125 million a year for projects filmed in the state. But then came the Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes.Production in the area came to a screeching halt. But major studios are apparently ready to call ‘Action’ once again.
“Our phone’s been ringing a little more off the hook than usual,” said Catalanotte. “From various feature films of various budgets. And they’re driven by the incentives.”“They dump an enormous amount of money here,” said Catalanotte. “When HBO was here a couple years ago, they spent over $10 million. Hotels, restaurants, shopping, hiring local crew, dry cleaning. I can’t even list all of the areas where they spent enormous amounts of money.