By Millie Takaki
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Federal legislation designed to provide wage-based tax relief for film and TV projects produced in the United States has been reintroduced in the Senate. Dubbed the Independent Film and Television Production Incentive Act of 2003, Senate Bill (SB) 1613 would amend the Internal Revenue Code of ’86 to initiate tax credits equal to 25 percent of the qualified wages paid on certain projects. These would include features, TV movies, miniseries and some episodic work, as well as direct-to-home video releases with total wage costs between $200,000 and $7.5 million. Commercials are not currently part of the measure’s language.
The bill was filed by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), and co-signed by 18 other senators representing a bipartisan mix. SB 1613 is very much the same as SB 1278, which was filed two years ago but fell by the wayside in Congress.
The measure is also similar to a bill introduced earlier this year in the U.S. House of Representatives (SHOOT, 2/21, p. 1). That anti-runaway bill, called the United States Independent Film and Television Act of ’03, would, if passed, provide a tax credit to qualifying projects with total wage costs between $200,000 and $10 million. The amount of the wage tax credit, in most cases, would be 25 percent of the first $25,000 in qualified wages per worker. The proposed legislation covers feature films as well as TV and cable programs. Commercials are not granted the tax break under the measure as presently written. The bill mirrors a measure introduced in the House of Representatives during the summer of ’01; that original measure stalled in Congress.
The new version of that House bill was reintroduced by two California congressmen, David Dreier (R-San Dimas) and Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys), joined by a bipartisan group of 45 members of the House of Representatives. A spokesperson for Berman told SHOOT last week that the anti-runaway legislation is currently being discussed in staff-level meetings and in some member dialogue with the House Ways & Means Committee to see what needs to be done to move forward.
Prospects for the passage of either the House or Senate bill are difficult to gauge. Backers of the Senate bill, for instance, are optimistic that they can attach their measure to pending legislation on international tax issues. On the other hand, there’s the reality of a massive federal budget deficit and a huge appropriation in the works for Iraq—an economic climate hardly conducive to the passage of tax incentive legislation.
Steve McQueen Shows Wartime London Through A Child’s Eyes In “Blitz”
It was a single photograph that started Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen on the journey to make "Blitz." As a Londoner, the German bombing raids on the city during World War II are never all that far from his mind. Reminders of it are everywhere. But the spark of inspiration came from an image of a small boy on a train platform with a large suitcase. Stories inspired by the evacuation are not rare, but this child was Black. Who was he, McQueen wondered, and what was his story? The film, in theaters Friday and streaming on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22, tells the tale of George, a 9-year-old biracial child in East London whose life with his mother, Rita ( Saoirse Ronan ), and grandfather is upended by the war. Like many children at the time, he's put on a train to the countryside for his safety. But he hops off and starts a long, dangerous journey back to his mom, encountering all sorts of people and situations that paint a revelatory and emotional picture of that moment. SEARCHING FOR GEORGE AND FINDING A STAR When McQueen finished the screenplay, he thought to himself: "Not bad." Then he started to worry: Does George exist? Is there a person out there who can play this role? Through an open casting call they found Elliott Heffernan, a 9-year-old living just outside of London whose only experience was a school play. He was the genie in "Aladdin." "There was a stillness about him, a real silent movie star quality," McQueen said. "You wanted to know what he was thinking, and you leant in. That's a movie star quality: A presence in his absence." Elliott is now 11. When he was cast, he'd not yet heard about the evacuation and imagined that a film set would be made up of "about 100 people." But he soon found his footing, cycling in and out of... Read More