The latest batch of state production tax credit allocations for feature films was announced Monday, and two big-budget productions are among the winners, the long-in-coming “Coming 2 America” sequel to the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy and the historical race car epic “Ford vs. Ferrari.”
Along with those nine-figure-or-close budgeted productions, other upcoming features conditionally approved for the tax credit to shoot primarily in California include a new film by “Get Out” writer-director Jordan Peele set in and around Santa Cruz, the latest “Scarface” remake and a big screen version of the gritty HBO Western series “Deadwood.”
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In all, nine features were chosen by the California Film Commission to get slices of the $55.5 million in tax credits assigned in this last round of allocations for the third fiscal year of the state’s five-year, $330 million per film and TV incentive program. The credits were designed to keep productions here that would otherwise run away to highly incentivized jurisdictions such as Georgia, British Columbia and Great Britain.
“California’s expanded tax credit program was successful from day one in attracting TV projects and mid-range features, and it’s succeeding over the long term with big-budget film projects like those announced today,” CFC executive director Amy Lemisch said in a press release Monday. “While our tax credit is more modest than what’s offered by some competitors, filmmakers understand that California can still provide the best value thanks to our superior talent, infrastructure, weather and locations.”
Georgia, for example, offers tax credits for what are called above-the-line expenditures – mainly salaries for actors, directors and other on-set bigwigs – while California’s incentives only apply to the below-the-line, more working class jobs and payments to in-state vendors. While the full budgets for “Ford vs. Ferrari” and “Coming 2 America” were not revealed Monday, they are expected to generate qualifying expenses exceeding $78 million and $64.6 million, respectively, in California.
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In total, the nine films conditionally approved Monday, if they all go into production here, should drop some $288.6 worth of qualified spending around the state. Any that pull out of the program will be replaced by other movie projects, of which there should be many; 39 productions applied for this round of feature film tax credits.
“The opportunity to produce projects here in California not only creates jobs and economic activity in-state, but it allows us to use the incredible resources we have in our own backyard,” Jeff LaPlante, president of physical production for Universal Pictures (which is making the upcoming Peele film), said in the CFC press release. “California provides an extraordinary setting that is adaptable for film production, and our ability to utilize tax credits locally benefits the community and many people across the industry.”
“Coming” and “F v. F” bring to nine the total number of big-budget (over $75 million at least) productions to take advantage of the more generous tax credit program since it replaced a lesser one such projects didn’t qualify for three years ago. Other big films shot or being made in California under the current 2.0 program include Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” the upcoming “Transformers” spinoff “Bumblebee” and Quentin Tarantino’s soon-to-start-production “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”