David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, has reportedly been backing a bill for a federal film tax incentive that has bipartisan support.
Multiple sources confirmed to Variety that that Ellison has spent at “least six months in exploratory meetings for the proposed legislation.” Ellison also met with Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss the legislation.
A federal film tax incentive would provide significant financial relief to content producers fleeing the U.S. for rebates around the world. A federal program would also sweeten the deal in Hollywood’s home state of California, whose AG Rob Bonta is leading the charge on the searing antitrust lawsuit waged today against Ellison over Warner Bros.
Hollywood’s labor unions — including the DGA, IATSE and SAG-AFTRA — have also taken up the mantle on a federal incentive. In its just-negotiated contract, the DGA stipulated that top studio execs must participate in lobbying for more favorable domestic filming incentives.
California has a TV and film tax credit worth $750 million, but no such program exists on the national level.
The proposed legislation comes Paramount eportedly been considers an exodus from the state of California as the company faces pushback from its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, with a report from Semafor over the weekend suggesting his friends and advisers have been nudging him to move the business out of California if Attorney General Rob Bonta stops his studio’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Last year, the company signed a lease in Bayonne, New Jersey, for nearly 300,000 square feet of studio space. Sources close to Ellison, however, said he remains “wary” of shifting from California after moving from New York to Los Angeles. Per Semafor:
Paramount has made repeated entreaties to Bonta to strike a deal that would allow its merger with Warner Bros. to close.
The studio proposed a firm commitment, via a consent decree, to produce 30 films annually, with a 45-day theatrical release window and a 90-day streaming window, alongside promises to keep both Paramount and Warner Bros. lots open in California, the people said.
Privately, Ellison and other Paramount executives have expressed frustration at Bonta’s refusal to engage, and have pointed to the commitments around content spending — some $30 billion annually — and employment that would flow into California. Already, the region has faced a production exodus to other states — even to Canada — with thousands of entertainment jobs lost in recent years. Ellison and his executives have said that the combined Warner Bros.-Paramount would create jobs in California, helping to stymie that outflow.
At least one Ellison adviser said that AG Bonta has created an “inhospitable” environment for Paramount to work in. Last month, Bonta told MSNOW that there were “red flags in the air everywhere,” and that he was “concerned about job loss and prices being increased.”
“We continue to engage constructively with the remaining few regulators around the world still considering the merger, including State Attorneys General, and are prepared to address any legitimate antitrust issues,” Paramount said in a statement. “We are confident this transaction raises no such concerns, as demonstrated by the dozens of antitrust authorities around the world that have carefully reviewed the transaction.”