“Many people moved to and or established themselves in Georgia because of the film industry. I am not disagreeing with @mang0ld at all… I just feel for those people who, through no fault of their own, will lose work,” Lurie tweeted. Georgia-based actor Steve Coulter, who has appeared in shows like “Yellowstone” and “P Valley,” responded to Mangold that the boycott would only “hurt thousands of rank & film actors & crew. Think before you cancel.” Likewise, “Mystic Pizza” screenwriter Amy Holden Jones argued that refusing to shoot in Georgia “is a solution that costs you nothing” and pushed Mangold to donate to voting rights groups. “Film and television shoot in Atlanta, the blue heart of the state,” she tweeted. “Eliminate production and you harm democratic voters, hard working people, not the representatives elected by the red rural areas.” According to Georgia.org, films currently shooting in Georgia are Dwayne Johnson’s “Black Adam,” Amazon’s “Emergency” and “My Best Friend’s Exorcism,” as well as indies “A Dangerous Thing,” “Christmas in Pine Valley,” “Devotion” and “Home Safe.” Other TV shows filming there are “Black Lightning,” “Cobra Kai,” “Doom Patrol,” “Dynasty,” “Homegrown,” “Power Puff Girls,” “Star Girl” and “The Walking Dead,” among others. One Hollywood insider speaking anonymously to TheWrap also referred to the anti-abortion bill from 2019, when several films pulled out of making movies in Georgia in reaction to the state’s “heartbeat bill” around abortions. The bill, which banned abortions on fetuses after six weeks of pregnancy, was similarly passed through the GOP-controlled legislature and signed by Kemp in May 2019, but was ruled unconstitutional by a federal district judge this past July. As the abortion bill was making its way through the legislature, a letter signed by more than 50 filmmakers and actors — including Judd Apatow, Amy Schumer and J.J. Abrams — promised to pull future productions out of Georgia if it was passed. But the insider said he’s sensing “less militarism” this time around, and that conversations he’s heard are more about needing to do something but being smart about it, and boycotting might not be the best route.I'm quite willing to join some of my peers boycotting Georgia as a filming locale. But, first, I wanna hear the wishes of @staceyabrams, @ReverendWarnock , and other black leaders to hear what they'd like us to do. Because this well intended stand could hurt…
— Rod Lurie (@RodLurie) March 27, 2021
“I’m not sensing from people in Hollywood that people are lining up behind Mangold,” the insider said. “Most people are taking the other tact, that there are other ways to get this done instead of hurting people.”
The insider also said that most productions already filming there, or ones that are lined up to start soon, probably won’t pull out of the state due to the costs associated with relocating a production. Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, echoed a similar sentiment on Twitter last week, writing, “please stop the #BoycottGeorgia talk. That would hurt middle class workers and people grappling with poverty. And it would increase the harm of both racism and classism.” The Black List founder and TV and film producer Franklin Leonard retweeted King’s post, adding “Listen to the people who have been doing this work longer than you’ve been thinking about the issues and who will have to contend with the consequences when you go back to not thinking about them at all.” He also tweeted, “I’ll support a boycott of film and television production in Georgia when @staceyabrams calls for one.” Abrams, political leader and a voting rights activist, on March 25 denounced the new bill, calling it “Jim Crow in a suit + tie: cutting off access, adding restrictions, encouraging more “show me your papers” actions to challenge a citizen’s right to vote. Facially neutral but racially targeted… But we will not be defeated by their worst actions & instincts. We will spread the word, we will sue & we will win. For democracy.” However, the Hollywood insider said that because Disney is one of the biggest studio’s to use the state’s tax credit to shoot both film and TV projects in Georgia, what they do in response to this new bill will set a barometer for others. A spokesperson for Disney has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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