Christopher Vourlias Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions, which recently wrapped the action-thriller “G20” for Amazon Studios and MRC Film in Cape Town, is planning to return to South Africa to film the true story of a young African refugee’s improbable journey to the U.S., the company’s head of film production and development, Melanie Clark, revealed this week at the Joburg Film Festival. Developing the film with a working title of “The Refugee,” Clark said Davis and Tennon’s production banner is “actively working on [it] with some local partners and are in the process of figuring out how to shoot it” in South Africa, adding that “we do plan to shoot that here.” The veteran production executive described the project as “the true story of a young Sierra Leonean boy who lost his mother in [the country’s civil war] and found himself alone, because no family would take him in any refugee camp.
Georgia Cap On Film & TV Production Tax Credits Clears House Committee; Local Industry Laments At Packed Hearing
20.02.2024 - 22:25 / deadline.com
A Georgia House subcommittee left unchanged a cap on tax credits that can be transferred each year as pols tinker with the 15-year old film and television production incentives prized by the industry that have transformed the state into a major player in the entertainment economy.
“It isn’t what we were hoping for, that’s for sure,” said one Georgia industry insider. He and others expected the cap would have been raised or otherwise changed in a second version of the bill presented today. It still may be as the legislation heads to the full Ways & Means Committee, then to the full House.
Auditing was tightened up a few years ago but the state’s rich 30% incentives have had no cap and relatively few requirements beyond displaying the Georgia Peach logo in credits. The film and TV credits are among the state’s largest across industries, accounting for $1.2 billion at peak production post-Covid. Rep. Kasey Carpenter, who drafted the bill for the Income Tax subcommittee of House Ways & Means, called the ongoing number quite large but also too unpredictable, leaving the state open to potential shortfalls for other projects.
HB1180 out earlier this month caps production tax credits eligible to be transferred each year to 2.5% of the state’s projected annual budget, which would be about $900 million at the current level. It only impacts companies headquartered outside of Georgia that can’t use the tax credits themselves but sell (or transfer) them locally in what’s become a booming market.
An updated version of the bill presented today says the credits will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis (instead of pro-rated as in the original). It calls for credits that are eligible to transfer but exceed the cap to
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