State film tax credit keeps Disney film local
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California’s first new film tax credit program has been panned by some filmmakers as too little too late, but it’s already helping to spur at least some local production.
A low-budget Walt Disney Pictures comedy, ‘You Again,’ is the first studio feature to shoot locally after qualifying for the film credit.
The comedy, starring Sigourney Weaver, Kristen Bell and Jamie Lee Curtis, began seven weeks of filming last week in West Los Angeles. The production also will film on location in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Monrovia, Chatsworth and Pasadena.
‘You Again’ is among 25 productions that have so far received credit qualification certificates from the California Film Commission. (Another project on the list, a made-for-TV movie called ‘Elevator Girl,’ began filming in Los Angeles in late July.)
Scheduled for release in 2010, ‘You Again’ received a commitment for a tax credit totaling about $3 million. That’s a significant savings for a movie with budget of less than $20 million.
‘When you get a tax credit that equals $3 million, that’s huge for a lower-budget movie,’’ said Mario Iscovich, the movie’s executive producer. ‘If it wasn’t for this tax credit, this movie had a great chance to made somewhere else. This was the sort of movie that could have easily shot in New York or Boston.’’
Although the tax credits can’t be used until 2011, the film commission recently began issuing tax credit certificates and so far has issued commitments totaling $67 million. The state has authorized a total of $500 million in film tax credits through 2014.
The state program offers a 20% to 25% tax credit on qualified production expenses and excludes movies that cost more than $75 million.
It’s too early to say whether they will do much to reverse the outflow of production that has pounded Southern California’s entertainment economy.
But Amy Lemisch, director of the California Film Commission, says movies like ‘You Again,’ which employ more than 100 crew members (excluding extras), are a welcome boost to the local economy. ‘These are shows that were absolutely set to shoot elsewhere and now they are filming here. It’s really having an effect,’ Lemisch said.
Iscovich added: ‘I’m just so happy we’re staying here. The people get to earn a living here in California and they can pay their taxes in the state. Lord knows California needs that.’
-- Richard Verrier
