JUNEAU, Alaska - It's going to take a lot more than stunning scenery to draw filmmakers and tons of their expensive equipment to Alaska.

It's going to take money, and Alaska is willing to put up $100 million.

State lawmakers have passed a bill designed to entice producers to actually make movies about Alaska in Alaska.

And, in doing so, Alaska joined a bidding war that has become increasingly competitive among state governments in the last several years.

Until Friday, the state sat behind the curve while others like Louisiana served as the backdrop for movies set in Alaska.

"The name of the game is incentives, incentives, incentives," said Carolyn Robinson, Anchorage-based film producer and board member of the Alaska Film Group, a non-profit trade association.

"We have the most beautiful backdrop - and even with that - the studios won't come up here to shoot," she said. "The directors don't make decision. The studios do. The accountants do."

Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis, an Anchorage Democrat, pushed the bill through the Legislature this year.

It's still awaiting Gov. Sarah Palin's signature.

Ellis said he had long grown tired of watching movies and television shows set in Alaska but filmed elsewhere. He had no trouble citing examples.

"The Guardian," starring Kevin Costner, was filmed in Louisiana; Hockey movie "Mystery Alaska" was filmed in Alberta; and "Insomnia" starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams was filmed in British Columbia.

The television series "Northern Exposure" didn't bring Hollywood dollars to Alaska, but the show about a New York doctor working in Alaska sure helped Roslyn, Wash., where the show was filmed.

It's also where the show's fans congregate almost every summer to celebrate the quirky series' five-year run in the 1990s.

"I reached my exasperation level of Alaska losing film productions to Louisiana and to Massachusetts," Ellis said. "The fact that we weren't even competing in this worldwide game rubbed me the wrong way."

The bill would grant state corporate income tax breaks of 30 per cent or more against amounts producers spend within the state making movies.

No-one expects the efforts to truly lead to economic diversification in a state where 90 per cent of the state's treasury gets funded from oil production revenue.

To start this program, the state will cap the incentives at $100 million over a five-year period.