SCOOP: U.S. Film and TV Credit Likely Lands in House Thursday

Hollywood’s long-discussed federal film and TV tax incentive is about to get very real. I’ve learned that legislation creating a nationwide production credit is likely to be introduced in the House as early as Thursday. (While Congress adjourned early last week, bills can be introduced in pro forma sessions held during the break.)

Just how seriously Hollywood is taking the prospect became clear Monday, when even amid the whopper Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger settlement news, California Attorney General Rob Bonta started off his presser — more or less a concession speech — by touting the benefits of a federal incentive and revealing that some of Paramount’s behavioral remedies would hinge on it.

“If Congress passes a federal film tax credit… Paramount has agreed that 20 percent of all film production must be in the United States for the first two years, and then 30 percent for the next three,” he said. Should California or New York uncap their statewide film tax incentives, Paramount must then ensure that at least 40 percent of its production occurs in the U.S. By stacking a federal film tax credit on top of the state tax credit, Bonta continued, “We will go from 5 percent of all global theatrical film production being in the United States to 40 percent. That’s a 700 percent increase.” 

Not long ago, federal participation in this system was a pipe dream. Now a nationwide incentive is closer than it’s ever been, thanks to newfound attention from President Trump, one of his “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, Jon Voight, and an unusually bipartisan legislative and industry coalition that has been quietly working on this effort for the better part of two years. That coalition includes U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman, a former film producer and one of the bill’s backers, who appeared on Ankler Agenda last week to speak about the bill’s origins and progress.

Trump has called the upcoming legislation the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, and it’s expected to include a 20 percent incentive, though the contours of the bill are still under wraps. 

Here’s what you need to know about the push to form a federal tax incentive — and the needed components to actually change Hollywood production — including:

• How quickly the bill could become become law — and what the midterms could change
• How the incentive will directly benefit U.S. production and Hollywood workers 
• The unlikely bipartisan coalition that got the bill this far
• How Jon Voight became such a steady and effective advocate for the incentive and got Trump on board
• What must end up in the bill for producers to actually use it