Leonardo DiCaprio’s live-action ‘Akira,’ 17 other feature films to shoot in California
The latest round of feature films to be conditionally approved for California’s tax credit production incentive is one of the most diverse yet, according to the California Film Commission, which administers the program.
The mix of 18 independent and big studio projects announced this morning includes a huge one. “Akira,” the long-in-development live-action adaptation of the fan-favorite Japanese comic book and animated feature, will be shot entirely in the state. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the producers of the future biker gang fantasy, which hopefully will consciously avoid the “whitewashing” controversies that greeted Hollywood’s last big anime adaptation, “Ghost in the Shell.”
“Akira” is expected to spend $92 million in qualified expenditures (below-the-line crew wages and purchases from in-state vendors) that should earn it around $18.488 million in tax credits. The production will spend much more on non-qualifying outlays like actor, writer and director salaries and studio costs.
“We are thrilled with the opportunity to shoot ‘Akira’ in California,” Ravi Mehta, Warner Bros. Pictures executive vice-president of physical production and finance, said of the decision. “The availability of top-notch crew members, plus the wide variety of location choices and predictable weather are second to none.”
The $330 million per year Film & TV Tax Credit 2.0 program was instituted by Sacramento to prevent productions from running away from the business’ traditional home state to other jurisdictions. Places like British Columbia and the United Kingdom offer more generous incentives, but as Mehta noted, California’s filmmaking infrastructure remains second to none, and talent overwhelmingly prefers working closer to home.
The CFC’s latest announcement also comes as the governor of its biggest competitor in the country, Georgia, may be about to sign one of the nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws. Dozens of Hollywood celebrities have asked producers not to shoot in the Southern state if that comes to pass.
Nine other major productions and eight indies were conditionally approved for the California tax credit Tuesday. The overall projected, qualified spending for this total batch of 18 is $408 million. California jobs expected to be generated include 2,575 crew and 812 cast members.
Among other titles in this round are “Flying Horse,” directed by and starring Gary Oldman as the 19th Century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who pioneered motion picture capture in California (and, btw, killed his wife’s lover); Gavin Polone’s thriller “Psycho Killer”; the Will Smith-starring biopic of Serena and Venus Williams’ dad “King Richard”; and Young Adult novel adaptation “The Sky Is Everywhere.”
“This latest round of tax credits demonstrates how Program 2.0 enables indie and studio
projects to remain in California and tap our unmatched talent and infrastructure,” Amy Lemisch, executive director of the CFC, said. “The filmmakers represent diverse projects that will shoot in locations across the state – from Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe to San Diego county.”
She’s also pretty glad to be challenging higher-spending places like Georgia for super-productions such as “Akira.”
“Big-budget film projects bring big employment and big spending, and we’re able to bring them home to California more cost-effectively than other locales that don’t have all that we have to offer,” Lemisch added.