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Hollywood’s Georgia Conundrum: Restrictive Voting Laws Threaten To Turn Peach Of A Location Venue Into Pariah

(deadline.com)

New Jersey may be the first state to pitch itself as an alternative to Georgia production, but it won’t be the last amid national furor at the Peach State’s restrictive new voting law. Atlanta’s booming entertainment industry has so many advantages from rebates to infrastructure, yet the state is making itself a liability again less than a year after passing a highly controversial state abortion law (struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional).

The measures include tougher ID rules for absentee ballots, limiting use of drop boxes, giving state election board officials the ability to override local boards and making it a misdemeanor to offer food or water to voters in line. All this in reaction to baseless claims by President Donald Trump that the election was stolen from him — brushing aside the reality that Red states turned Blue because voters were moved to oust a polarizing leader whose response to a global pandemic that has taken over 550,000 U.S. lives was woefully inadequate. And whose final act was to whip a crowd of insurrectionists into a frenzy that led to a storming of the U.S. Capitol and made him the first U.S. President to be twice impeached by the House of Representatives.

By: Jill Goldsmith

Continue Reading at deadline.com

Hawaii Senate Panel OKs Changes To Film Production Tax Credit

(law360.com)

A Hawaii Senate committee voted to advance a bill that would make changes to the state’s motion picture, digital media and film production income tax credit and reduce the cap amounts on…

By: Asha Glover

Continue Reading at law360.com

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sent a letter to major studios in an effort to lure projects to the state.

(hollywoodreporter.com)

Georgia’s potential loss could be New Jersey’s gain. At least that’s what the Garden State hopes.

Amid backlash to Georgia’s newly passed voting law, New Jersey is attempting to poach business from the Peach State. On Thursday, Gov. Phil Murphy sent a letter to some of the major studios, including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros., condemning the election law, which ushers in more rigid voter restrictions like ID requirements for absentee voting, limiting the number of ballot drop boxes, and making it illegal to give food and water to voters in line.

“I’ve watched the recent decisions coming from the Georgia State House with disappointment. Restricting the right to vote is more than just wrong, it’s un-American,” he wrote, in a letter obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “These voting restrictions have thrust Georgia into the national spotlight, with the vast majority seeing the State’s decision as an attack on people of color by a Governor and Legislature willing to do anything to stay in power.”

He then went on to sell them on the state’s 30 percent tax credit on film projects, which is on par with Georgia’s generous tax incentives, and also note a 40 percent subsidy for any brick-and-mortar studio development in the state. “Our new $14.5 billion economic incentive package makes the Garden State just as competitive as Georgia to attract film and television production businesses,” he wrote, adding that there’s ample opportunity for growth in New Jersey’s entertainment and production industries. “One thing is clear: when it comes to social policies, corporate responsibility, and — not to be overlooked — economic opportunity, New Jersey is now a top contender for your business.” (The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Gov. Murphy’s letter to the studios.)

By: Bryn Sandberg

Continue Reading at hollywoodreporter.com

David Parfitt, Gabrielle Tana and Thomas Benski talk outlook for financing, distribution, festivals

93CE4A

The producers of The Father, The Dig and Mogul Mowgli, all nominated for the outstanding British film Bafta, come together to discuss the current UK film-financing landscape and the outlook for festivals, distribution and exhibition over the next 18 months

This year’s Bafta nominations suggested a fresh approach in comparison to recent years — including a stronger focus on UK talent, and not just because the outstanding British film category has been expanded to 10 nominees. Screen International invited three of the nominated producers — all based in the UK — to share their thoughts on a raft of current issues in the industry.

Gabrielle Tana is the founder of Magnolia Mae and is nominated for Netflix-backed historical drama The Dig, directed by Simon Stone and adapted by Moira Buffini from the John Preston novel. She will shortly be heading to Australia where she is one of the producers, alongside Brian Grazer, on Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, about the Thai football players trapped in an underground cave. She is also working with Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz on his first English-language film, Queen’s Gambit. Her credits include The Duchess(2008), Coriolanus (2011), The Invisible Woman (2013), Philomena (2013) and The White Crow (2018).

Trademark Films’ David Parfitt, producer of The Father, has worked on awards contenders stretching back to his films with Kenneth Branagh in the 1980s and ’90s, among them Henry V (1989), as well as Nicholas Hytner’s The Madness Of King George (1994), John Madden’s Shakespeare In Love (1998) and Simon Curtis’s My Week With Marilyn (2011). Former Bafta chairman Parfitt has been “sitting out” 2020 and early 2021 as far as physical production is concerned, but has a packed development slate including a “returnable TV series with some cast attached”, which could shoot by the end of the year, and a couple of projects with directors he has worked with before — but he is keeping the details to himself for now.

Pulse Films CEO Thomas Benski produced Mogul Mowgli, directed by Bassam Tariq and co-written by Tariq and star Riz Ahmed. The company’s eclectic range of film and TV credits include everything from Andrea Arnold’s American Honey (2016) and Nick Cave documentary 20,000 Days On Earth (2014), to Nicolas Cage truffle-hunting drama Pig, which is expected to be released in the coming months. Pulse is preparing a second series of TV drama Gangs Of London. The company is also producing Olivia Wilde’s feature Perfect, about US Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug.

By: Geoffrey Macnab

Continue Reading at screendaily.com

Augusta’s film industry eager to see bigger boom after COVID-19 shutdowns

(wrdw.com)

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – 2019 was a banner year for film production, and members with Film Augusta were ready to repeat in 2020 before COVID-19 shut everything down.

But now there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and they’re ready for the future of film in the city.

Signs downtown say roads are closed, but this time, that means businesses are actually back open.

Jennifer Bowen, a film liaison with Film Augusta, says after a few months of standstill, the phone started ringing late last year.

“People were so… they were locked in. They were locked in at home. They had a lot of creativity. We actually fielded a lot of inquiries late in 2020,” she said.

In the first three months of the year, one production has already been shot here and another is in the works.

“We have seen a record number of inquiries. We’ve had more people in town through the beginning of this year than we’ve had before,” Bown explained.

By: Nick Proto

Continue Reading at wrdw.com