A new report has advocated a formal filming incentive programme for India and has emphasised the benefits of film tourism. The country enjoyed a recent profile boost with light comedy hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
California has signed into law a boosted filming incentive that will take effect from 2015. Formalising a deal agreed in August, the move increases the state’s annual film fund to USD 330 million for the next five years.
Nevada has had its state filming incentive largely defunded less than a year after its launch. The money has been redirected to help fund a billion-dollar incentive package that will bring manufacturing giant Tesla to the state to build a Gigafactory battery plant in Reno.
Louisiana remains confident that it will still have the edge when California boosts its filming incentives next year. The southern state has a 30% uncapped filming incentive and has recently doubled for California for features including Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
The chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has invited state film commissioners from across the US to a filming incentive summit in Washington, DC. On 29 September Chris Dodd will talk about improving support for incentive programmes.
Australia has offered Disney a filming incentive payment of a little over AUD 20 million in a bid to lure Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The studio reportedly plans to shoot the fifth film in the adventure franchise next year but the filming location has not yet been confirmed.
A studio executive at Warner Bros has advocated a larger fund for the filming incentive programme in Texas. Michael Walbrecht is Entertainment Vice President at the studio and said making more money available would help boost the state’s profile in the US and attract larger shoots.
California will launch a reformed filming incentive programme with an annual fund of USD 330 million that will come into effect for the 2016 fiscal year. The fund will still be less than in New York, but the hope is that California’s locations and production infrastructure will give the West Coast the edge.