Written by new-contact on Mar 24, 2014. Posted in Incentive News

Kevin Spacey meets with Maryland lawmakers in bid to extend filming incentives

Actor and producer Kevin Spacey has met with lawmakers in Maryland in a bid to extend the state’s filming incentive programme. Spacey stars in the Netflix political drama House of Cards, which is asking for greater financial support to film a third season in Baltimore.

House of Cards has received nearly USD30 million in filming tax credits to double Baltimore for Washington, DC, over two seasons. However, Maryland’s film fund has been sharply reduced for the 2014 financial year and cannot currently offer the same support for the third season.

Production company Media Rights Capital has postponed third-season filming and appealed directly to the Governor for a legislative change, threatening to shift production to another state if changes are not made.

“It is absolutely essential for us to keep [House of Cards] in Maryland,” Maryland Delegate John Donoghue told ABC News Radio: “I know there are people who are criticising us but it has a huge impact on the economy in Maryland for them to stay here and film in Annapolis and Baltimore. If we lose them that's not good. Our film industry in Maryland for many years has done terrifically well. We've had many motion pictures filmed here.”

Maryland’s filming incentive is worth up to 25% of the eligible local spend for film productions or 27% for TV shoots. The film fund is usually worth just USD7.5 million, but this was increased to USD25 million for last year, which at the time enabled a larger payment for House of Cards.

Spacey’s meeting was designed to encourage the passing of a new bill that would boost the film fund closer to last year’s USD25 million and enable House of Cards to remain in Baltimore.