Thailand is planning to launch its first formal filming incentive programme in 2017, with the first payments available a year later. The government is looking to launch a 15% tax rebate, with a per-production cap equivalent to about USD 5.6 million.
France is planning to amend part of its filming incentive laws to ensure Luc Besson’s big-budget movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets shoots in Paris. Besson’s film had initially been denied filming incentive support as a French film because it will shoot in English.
Authorities in North Carolina plan to triple the state’s film fund to USD 30 million half a year after the formal filming incentive was controversially downgraded to a grant system. Drama Under the Dome claimed half of this year’s incentive fund, but will end after its third season.
Lawmakers in Kenya have granted initial approval for a new 30% filming incentive as part of plans to raise the country’s filmmaking profile. The government is under particular pressure to bring Angelina Jolie Pitt’s true-life conservation movie Africa to Kenya.
Scotland has announced a new fund to encourage more film and TV productions to shoot on location north of the border. The country has attracted high-profile shoots like the historical romance Outlander, but the government is under pressure to do more to entice productions.
The UK has been given approval by the European Union (EU) to boost its filming incentive programme. Productions will now get a 25% tax credit on all their eligible UK spending, in a move that could help attract more shoots on the scale of Star Wars and 24: Live Another Day.
Eight studio features have secured initial approval for filming incentive support from California’s boosted tax credit programme. The highest-profile movie is supernatural sequel Conjuring 2 and several of the approved productions will shoot outside Los Angeles’ 30-Mile Zone.
Authorities in Thailand have announced plans to launch a filming incentive programme for the first time. The country attracts hundreds of international productions every year but has had only limited success with high-profile western shoots.