California continues to make progress in the fight against “runaway production” as its expanded Film & TV Tax Credit Program 2.0 lures more big-budget films to the Golden State.
The California Film Commission announced that “Ford v. Ferrari” (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.) and “Coming 2 America” (Paramount Pictures) are among the nine projects selected for the latest round of film tax credits. They join a growing list of big-budget wins for Program 2.0, including “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Bumblebee,” “Call of the Wild” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
These types of projects had proved especially prone to runaway production and were ineligible for California tax credits under the state’s first-generation incentive program, which was closed to films with total budgets exceeding $75 million.
The action-drama “Ford v. Ferrari” (20th Century Fox) is on track to spend more than $78 million in California just on qualified expenditures (defined as wages to below-the-line workers and payments for equipment/vendors). A total of 67 shooting days are planned in-state, with well over half in regions outside the Los Angeles 30-mile zone including Kern, Orange, Santa Rosa and San Bernardino counties. California will double for locales including Florida, Michigan, England and France.
The comedy sequel “Coming 2 America” (Paramount) starring Eddie Murphy is on track to spend $64.6 million in-state on qualified expenditures.
“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,” said California Film Commission executive director Amy Lemisch. “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.”
In addition to “Ford v. Ferrari” and “Coming 2 America,” seven other feature films–five from studios and two independents–were approved conditionally for the current $55.5 million round of tax credits (the third and final film round for fiscal year-three of the expanded Program 2.0). They are an untitled Jordan Peele film (from Deep Cuts, LLC) that will shoot extensively outside the 30-mile zone in Santa Cruz; the new “Scarface” remake (Valet Productions LLC), “Deadwood” (Calling Grace Productions) which is inspired by the HBO series of the same title; “Grand-Daddy Day Care” (Pop Pop Productions); “Marry Me” (Universal City Studios); “Pandora” (Pandora Movie LLC); and “The New Mrs. Keller” (Lakeshore Entertainment Group). A total of 39 film projects applied for tax credits during the March 7–13 application period.
