Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep are among the big-name stars heading to Oklahoma in autumn 2012 for dark comedy August: Osage County. The production has qualified for the Oklahoma Film & Music Office’s Film Enhancement Rebate Program.
Commercials shooting in Michigan are not eligible for the state’s filming incentive. The state has had to make a distinction because commercials can be eligible for the incentive when they’re promoting productions that have qualified for the programme.
A group of filmmaking professionals in New Hampshire on the east coast of the US is calling for a location filming incentive programme. The New Hampshire Production Coalition (NHPC) wants to be more competitive with states that are already nationally known as film-friendly.
Ausfilm has called for a boost to Australia’s location filming incentives with the arrival in Sydney of X-Men spin-off The Wolverine. Australia has been short on big-budget international filming productions in the last few years and the country is keen to take advantage of renewed Hollywood focus.
A new report has criticised Louisiana’s filming incentives, calling for payment caps and questioning how much the programme benefits locals. Louisiana is one of the production hubs in the US – along with California and New York – partly as a result of its 30% filming tax incentive.
New York State has expanded its post-production incentive and will reward projects doing the work outside New York City. Filmmakers can now access a 30% tax credit on post work done in the city – a 10% increase – and the credit grows to 35% if they get it done elsewhere in the state.
A TV tax credit in the UK could secure Game of Thrones for Northern Ireland on a long-term basis. Frank Doelger, an Executive Producer on the show, revealed that an incentive could trump any pressures to show audiences new locations.
Puerto Rico has officially expanded its location filming incentive package with a 20% tax credit for non-resident talent, as well as measures to encourage infrastructure development. Positioned in the north-eastern Caribbean, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated US territory.