Twenty-three feature films have been selected for the latest round of tax credits under California’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program.
They include 13 independent and 10 non-independent projects by a wide range of filmmakers including Aziz Ansari (Untitled Aziz Ansari Project), Kenya Barris (Untitled Jonah Hill Project and White Men Can’t Jump), Jerry Bruckheimer (Beverly Hills Cop 4), Brian Grazer and Salma Hayek (Escape), Jonah Hill (Dixon), Karyn Kusama (Untitled Karyn Kusama Project) and Kobi Libii (Untitled Kobi Libii Project).
“We look forward to welcoming this diverse blend of films and filmmakers to the tax credit program,” said California Film Commission executive director Colleen Bell. “The 23 projects announced today will bring thousands of jobs and significant economic opportunity to regions across the state.”
Based on data from each tax credit application, the 23 projects will generate nearly $678 million in “qualified” spending, defined as below-the-line wages to California workers and payments to in-state vendors. Overall spending in California will increase significantly with the inclusion of above-the-line wages and other production expenditures that do not qualify for incentives under the state’s uniquely targeted tax credit program.
In all, the projects will employ an estimated 4,088 crew, 873 cast and 40,621 background actors/stand-ins (the latter measured in “man-days”) over a combined 953 filming days in California. They will also generate significant postproduction jobs and revenue for California VFX artists, sound editors, sound mixers, musicians and other workers/vendors.
Big-budget projects include Untitled Jean-Marc Vallee Project with $86.7 million in qualified spending, Rebel Moon with $83 million, Beverly Hills Cop 4 with nearly $78 million and Dixon with $71.5 million. As noted above, their overall in-state spending will be significantly higher.
“Being from California, it’s important for me to support my home state whenever I get the chance,” said Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill. “We are so thankful for the California tax credit because it will allow me to utilize the amazing crew members and locations offered here at home for my next two projects.”
On the opposite end of the budget spectrum, nine of the 13 independent projects in the current round were accepted into the Tax Credit Program’s recently added “$10 million-and-under qualified spending” category, which reserves credits specifically for lower-budget independent films.
Consistent with the Tax Credit Program’s goal of bringing production jobs and spending to regions across California, 239 (nearly 25 percent) of the aggregate 953 in-state filming days are planned outside the Los Angeles 30-Mile Studio Zone Fourteen of the 23 projects plan significant out-of-zone production, led by indies Moving On (30 out-of-zone days in Ventura County), Magazine Dreams (29 out-of-zone days location TBD) and Untitled Aziz Ansari Project (25 out-of-zone days in Palm Springs/Riverside County).
The full slate of non-indie feature films consists of Beverly Hills Cop 4 (Netflix Productions, with an estimated tax credit of $15,759,000), Dixon (Lakefront Productions, estimated tax credit of $14,582,000), End of Liz as We Know It (Nova Prime, estimated tax credit of $13.5 million), Escape (Imagine Entertainment, estimated tax credit of $8,691,000), Rebel Moon (Netflix Productions, estimated tax credit of nearly $18.5 million), Scarface (Universal City Studios, estimated tax credit of $9,882,000), Untitled Jean-Marc Vallee Project (Universal City Studios, estimated tax credit of $17,341,000), Untitled Jonah Hill Project (Netflix Productions, estimated tax credit of $9,021,000), Untitled Karyn Kusama Project (Universal City Studios, estimated tax credit of $3,899,000) and White Men Can’t Jump (TCS US Productions 12, estimated tax credit of $6,562,000).
The 13 indie features are: Anemone (AFI Media Holdings, estimated tax credit of $498,000), Dead Wrong (Deadly Instinct, estimated tax credit of $262,000), F***** Identical Twins (Sewer Boys LLC, estimated tax credit of $2,164,000), Magazine Dreams (LAMF Development, estimated tax credit of $1,771,000), Moving On (Moving On Productions, estimated tax credit of $1,755,000), Perfect (Sunny Spot Productions, estimated tax credit of $2,480,000), Poolman (Barry Linen Productions, estimated tax credit of $2.5 million), Rose (Rose Distribution, estimated tax credit of $2.5 million), Seedless (Seedless Movie Company, estimated tax credit of $642,000), Soulmates (Imani Media Group, estimated tax credit of $432,000), Untitled Aziz Ansari Project (Peppermint Road, estimated tax credit of $2.5 million), Untitled Kobi Libii Project (Major Society LLC, estimated tax credit of $2.5 million) and Verona Spies (ARCI, estimated tax credit of $1,038,000).
A total of 56 applications were received during the July 19-26 feature film tax credit application period. The California Film Commission has reserved $138.7 million in tax credit allocation for the 23 conditionally approved projects
The next application period for feature films will be held January 24-31, 2022. The next application period for recurring and relocating TV series will be held September 20-27, 2021.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More