Silicon Valley software development whiz Mike Devlin decided to quit the rat race several years ago and sold his company to IBM for roughly $2 billion.

What did he do next?

Seeking a less urban lifestyle, Devlin quietly relocated to Anchorage. But instead of retiring like a tycoon, he decided to get busy on a new career: filmmaking.

"There's a chance that five years from now, there could be a big industry up here," he said.

Though he drives around in Hummers, runs a deluxe $10 million post-production studio on the Anchorage Hillside and is out pitching business ideas for even more significant film studio investments in Anchorage, Devlin doesn't talk like a flashy guy.

He lets his high-end digital equipment make the impression. He has a long-lens camera so powerful that it can show the whorls of fur on a sea otter's coat from a mile away, and another one that cuts through glacial silt to catch amazing underwater shots of fish and other wild critters.

To showcase the new National Geographic Channel film he recently produced on Alaska salmon sharks, his company, California-based Evergreen Films Inc., is hosting a VIP reception tonight at the Hillside studio and a free public screening of "Icy Killers: Secrets of Alaska's Salmon Shark" on Saturday at the Wild Berry Theater.

This weekend's events are a departure from Devlin's quiet behavior over the past few years. "I've been here since 2005 but keeping a low profile," he said.

Devlin isn't the only Anchorage entrepreneur optimistic that filmmaking could boom in Alaska. If it does, he said, it could provide a different sort of job opportunity for Alaskans: one that caters to people with creative skills, expertise in the outdoors and interest in video production.

SOFTWARE TO SHARKS

Devlin is a heavyset, mild-mannered guy with gray hair and keen interest in technology. The digital equipment he uses on his film shoots is worth millions of dollars.

Until a few years ago, Devlin ran Rational Software, a company he co-founded in the 1980s. Rational, with offices in California and Massachusetts, made its millions by pioneering tools used by programmers to build software. When IBM bought the company in 2002, Rational had 3,400 employees and $689 million in sales. At $2.1 billion, the Rational deal was one of IBM's largest acquisitions since the mid-1990s.

Devlin stuck around for a few years to manage the company after the sale but he said he got tired of the busy lifestyle, which involved constant flying from city to city. He had visited Alaska only once before -- on a fishing trip to Southeast Alaska -- but he latched onto the idea of moving here, he said.

A film buff, Devlin started his own Alaska film production company, Dangerous Passage Productions. He later merged with Evergreen, which specialized in science-related documentaries.

Now that Devlin has a post-production studio, he said he's scouting for business partners to invest in a local sound stage and perhaps a visual effects studio as well. A sound stage is a sound-proof warehouse used to shoot scenes for films. A visual effects studio is for special effects and animation, he said.

TAX LURE

For decades, Alaskans have pouted over Hollywood's tendency to shoot films set in Alaska somewhere else, such as British Columbia or New Zealand.

Last year state legislators led by Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, approved a generous tax credit to start tempting filmmakers to Alaska.

The new 30 percent tax credit will be available to any company spending more than $100,000 in the state on a film project. The rules for exactly how the tax credit will work have not quite been finalized, but five companies have already been pre-qualified to receive it and they have begun working here, state officials said this week.

"We are definitely in the game now," said Mary Katzke, who works for the state's film office. Some projects that are under way or still under discussion include reality TV shows and made-for-cable movies, she said.

Devlin had already moved to Alaska and begun shooting films before the incentive was approved. "But because of (the incentive), we substantially increased our investments and our spending," Devlin said. For example, he's embarked on new Hollywood ventures and he has purchased new, expensive equipment to take advantage of the credit -- which lowers his state tax bill.

This spring, Devlin and his local crew of about a dozen are working on an IMAX documentary on Prince William Sound. In November, his company told state officials that it plans to spend $4.6 million in Alaska on the project and provide $397,700 in local wages. The state has qualified this project and three others to receive $1.7 million in tax credits.

COMING SOON

One of the other pre-qualifiers was Disney, which shot a limited amount of footage in Sitka for an upcoming film, "The Proposal," starring Sandra Bullock. Most of the film was actually shot elsewhere, Katzke said.

Another pre-qualifier was Anchorage-based Ascending Path, a climbing-guide company that has developed a new niche in adventure filmmaking.

"We're expecting huge growth," said Matt Szundy, who co-owns Ascending Path with his wife. "It's created a lot of work for our guides," he said.

In November, Szundy produced alpine footage for a Discovery Channel documentary on a Himalayan climbing tragedy, in which an Alaskan was killed. The footage needed was a re-enactment of certain climbing scenes in the Chugach Range.

"We hired a lot of folks (about 30 people). It turned out great," Szundy said.

The filmmakers decided to shoot in Alaska instead of Argentina or Nepal because of the tax incentive, Szundy said.