How did Jon Voight and his production partners, Steven Paul and Scott Karol, convince President Donald Trump to back a federal tax incentive for film production? It started with a phone call from a concerned filmmaker.
“I received a call from one of the producers of one of our big blockbuster series of films, and he said to me, ‘Jon, we can’t make films in Hollywood. We can’t make films in the United States. So that’s the situation, and the result is massive unemployment of the great people who made this industry work for so long,” Voight told reporters during a press conference with the new U.S. Film and Television Production Coalition on Tuesday.
“Our president is a compassionate man. He was impressed, too, by the unanimity of the unions and the people on both sides of the aisle in Congress, and he has expressed his backing of a tax credit for America that would level the playing field and bring jobs back to our country,” he continued.
Voight said that when President Trump named him “Special Ambassador to Hollywood” alongside Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone at Paul’s suggestion, he took the role seriously and engaged with the White House on multiple visits on how to help the American entertainment industry. It was after one of those visits that Trump floated the idea on social media of imposing tariffs on productions shot outside of the United States.
But last month, following a visit by Voight, Paul and Karol to the White House, Trump announced that he would support a federal film tax incentive, a signal that Congressional and Hollywood insiders told TheWrap they had been waiting on for months as conversations were held on Capitol Hill to rally support for such an incentive.
“Meetings are being set up with the Leaders of both Parties in order to get this done. It should be Bipartisan, especially since so much money is being lost in California, and other largely Blue States. I am going to suggest that Republicans and Democrats get together, and immediately craft Legislation to save the Movie, Television, and Entertainment Business in America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Karol, who is president/COO of Steven Paul’s SP Media Group, said that the trio shared topline data from a new study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association and published Tuesday which found that if the U.S. implements a tax credit based on 20% of labor spending, annual production spending in the country could more than double to $36 billion by 2035 compared to $16.7 billion without such an incentive.
“But I also think what really had an impact on him was a story that Steven told him about a very American movie that we are starting to film in two days,” Karol said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to make it in America because of the incentives that are available overseas, and I think that’s one of the really important things. This isn’t about a handout to Hollywood. This isn’t about big corporations making more money. This is the difference between getting a movie made and not getting a movie made in America, right? This is the difference between providing jobs and not providing jobs.”
“When we went to see the president, Jon spoke to him about how there are lives at stake here,” Paul added. “We’re losing people in our industry. We’re losing these movies all around the world, and I think the president really heard it and felt it.”
Proponents of the tax incentive in the House of Representatives are hoping to introduce legislation in the House Ways & Means Committee by the end of the month, with California Democrats Laura Friedman, Judy Chu and Linda Sanchez expected to be major drivers behind the bill.
On the Republican side, Georgia’s Brian Jack, who worked in the first Trump Administration, is running point on the bill alongside Texas Ways & Means Committee member Rep. Nathaniel Moran.
Insiders told TheWrap that language is still being ironed out on the incentive, including additional uplifts beyond the 20% base rate for productions relocating from other countries and other bonuses for filming in specific parts of the country.
