From Les Times de Los Angeles:
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand is asking Hollywood for its budget-weary producers, pressured directors and harried filmmakers yearning for a tax break. ... [Mitterand] visited Los Angeles this week ... to meet with senior studio executives, including Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer.
... The French rebate, in effect for little more than a year, has already had some effect, Mitterrand said. Among the beneficiaries was Universal Pictures' hit animated movie "Despicable Me," produced with Paris-based animation studio Mac Guff Ligne and Santa Monica's Illumination Entertainment (the companies are now working on "The Lorax") ...
So there's a reason I.E. does a lot of its work in another land. It gets tax incentives.
(On a related note, the state of California held hearings today on extending its own credits. Our representative Mr. Kaplan was there, along with reps from most of the other Hollywood unions and guilds. The head of the sound local, veteran business representative Jim Osburn, was pretty adamant about getting state incentives extended for another year, saying the film biz would suffer if the tax breaks went away.)
Posts
6 comments:
Remember that Blue Sky studio moved from New York to Connecticut because of tax incentives. It was a bit of a blow to NY studios.
That's why states like louisana, florida and georgia all have recently started large film and animation incentives too.
Most states and some countries are rescinding these"incentives" to balance their budgets
Parts of ran go were done in Singapore. It shows.
It'll be interesting to see how these French-rebate productions find ways to fulfill the "must feature French culture" requirement as part of the tax credit.
In Despicable Me, they got by with having Gru steal the Eiffel Tower (Las Vegas version) and Carrel copping a vaguely French accent. Will The Lorax be cutting down Loire valley vineyards?
Low corporate taxes are a policy of the right. Local labor always remains silent about loopholes when it benefits them, and squeals when it does not. Any way you can get away with manipulating government policy, I guess. Such a game.
Excuse me, exactly which "tax loopholes" benefit labor? How is it a "game?" Your condescending use of the word "squeals," equating labor with spoiled children reveals your point of view.
The right always wants lower tax rates up front, the justification being that the extra profit will be re-invested in the economy. It never is.
Tax INCENTIVES, on the other hand, the subject of the posting, are entirely different. They are linked to investment and economic activity. They have to be earned.
The right wants the breaks up front, on trust. All you have to do is look around to see how well that has worked. Very, very different.
Post a Comment