Photo by drtana.

Virginia has won out over a few other Southern states to be the home of Steven Spielberg’s production of his film about Abraham Lincoln. Starring Daniel Day Lewis, the movie will be filmed in Richmond and Petersburg.

Virginia offered $4.6 million in tax breaks and incentives to Disney and Dreamworks to get entice them to film in the Commonwealth. It turns out though, that Virginia offered the fewest in tax breaks to the studios of other states, seems like Virginia’s rich history and period architecture were the real draw.

Filming will start in Virginia this fall. The Commonwealth will benefit greatly from the production, as motion picture and video productions produced $346 million for Virginia in 2009.