Actor Jon Voight to Present Donald Trump with plan to fix Hollywood

By Christopher Palmeri and Thomas Buckley | Bloomberg

Actor Jon Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, plan to present President Donald Trump with ideas to help boost US film and TV production as early as next week.

Their suggestions will go beyond the film tax credits typically offered by states and could include incentives for infrastructure investments, job training and changes to the tax code.

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“It’s important that we compete with what’s going on around the world so there needs to be some sort of federal tax incentives,” Paul said in an interview.

The group is trying to address the current situation where states compete with each other to lure film productions with ever more generous tax credits. Their approach includes national initiatives that would help the US win business that might have gone overseas, Paul said.

Film and TV production has fallen in California and elsewhere in the US as studios cut back and other countries solicit the business, often through tax incentives. Some countries, including the UK, Australia, Hungary and Spain, have seen their film and TV business climb in recent years. A California bill that would more than double state incentives to $750 million annually is making its way through the legislature.

Voight, along with actors Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone, were appointed in January to be special ambassadors to what Trump called “a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California.”

Scott Karol, the president of Paul’s company, SP Media Group, said that Voight’s group has met with studio executives, union representatives and state officials to solicit their thoughts.

One suggestion could be to adjust Section 181 of the US tax code which allows accelerated deductions for film and TV production. That incentive, which expires this year, could be extended and raised from its current limit of $15 million per production.

Another idea is to reward long-term financial commitments such as building sound stages with tax incentives, modeled on Netflix Inc.’s agreement to make films and TV shows in New Jersey over a decade in return for a 40% rebate.

Paul, a producer whose recent picture Man With No Past also starred Voight, said he is planning to move production of three new movies to California from overseas and invest in a studio property in Los Angeles, which has been particularly hard hit by runaway production.

“It’s been very, very difficult here,” Paul said. “We’re feeling the cries of people in town.”

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