“Hollywood is not dying,” UTA’s Rena Ronson told delegates at the Zurich Summit this weekend. “I think it has evolved and that our world has become more global but it’s certainly not dying. It’s very relevant and it’s still the hub for talent.”
Ronson pointed out that the production landscape has “evolved” as the industry had become more global but stressed that productions shooting overseas is nothing new to the business.
“Certainly, probably based on tax incentives and regional funding that exists overseas, there has been a little bit more of a shift in shooting overseas but that’s not new though,” she said. “We’ve seen it before with films shot in New Zealand or Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland. There are tons of films that haven’t been shot in the U.S. before because it made sense either creatively or financially.”
Ronson was joined by CAA Media Finance’s Sarah Schweitzman, Goodfellas CEO Vincent Maraval and the Saudi Film Commission’s Abduljalil Al-Nasser where the execs weighed in on the emergence of European and international production hubs and incentives and the changing role of Hollywood in today’s business.
“I think if you’re not moving with it and you’re wishing and hoping that everything goes back to the way that it was 20 or 30 years ago, then I think ultimately you’ll be disappointed,” said Schweitzman. “But our whole job in what we do is to try and figure out solutions for puzzles in putting movies together. I think roughly half of U.S. films are shot overseas and I think that we have a lot of work to do in the U.S. to bring production back.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently expanded the state’s Film & Television Tax Credit to $750M annually for the next five years, which Schweitzman noted was a “huge effort” and that already the business is seeing the benefits.
“I have one movie that is supposed to be shooting in the fall in L.A. and I have to say, the process of getting through the tax board and doing all of that has been relatively seamless compared to over the last couple of years,” she said. “So, we’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to shoot more in the U.S. but also excited to be shooting elsewhere.”
She continued: “I don’t think anyone sees a complete disappearing of production in California. I think it’s going to get better. I think there’s a desire and obviously it depends on what the content is about. There are certain films and television series that just simply have to be shot in a certain place so I think people will always go to the locations that make more sense for that particular production.”
Maraval noted that the role of Hollywood has changed tremendously across the last decade, pointing to this weekend’s release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another starring Leonardo DiCaprio. That film is looking at a global $48.5M opening weekend, of which $22.4M is from the U.S. and Canada, while Japanese title Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle earned a huge $70M domestic opening a few weeks ago.
“Look at the opening of the Paul Thomas Anderson film, which is a masterpiece,” said Maraval. “But you look at the numbers and the week before, a Japanese anime film did five times more. Something has changed. Not only has it changed in taste but the desires of audiences have changed.”
Maraval explained how the historical difference of financing projects out of Europe versus financing projects out of the U.S., ultimately drove him to set up LA-based outfit The Veterans. He told delegates that when he headed up Wild Bunch and they sold foreign rights to Oliver Stone’s U.S. title Snowden, they needed to “report on a daily basis.”
“It’s a different world,” he said. “We were not equipped to do that. When you sell your own film first, you can wait to sell on a promo reel, which is always a better situation…but when you sell for someone else, you need to put together the financing in five days. So, we decided to [set up a company] in the U.S. because it was just a different way of doing it and, of course, we wanted to access to the talent.”
Maraval added: “At the time, I would say that 90% of private investors for cinema were in Hollywood and that’s why we decided to have two companies doing two different jobs. But it has changed tremendously since then.”
When pressed about Saudi Arabia’s desire to attract productions to shoot in the region, Saudi Film Commission’s Al-Nasser said “we are not focused on Hollywood.”
“We are focusing more on productions from all over the world,” adding that 2023 Indian title Dunki, starring Shah Rukh Khan, shot in KSA.
“Our philosophy here is to build the film industry as a modern film industry that is going to be meaningful to as many productions as possible and make our country a hub for international filmmaking.”
The post CAA, UTA, Goodfellas & Saudi Film Commission Execs Talk Evolving Shift Of Productions Shooting Overseas But Insist “Hollywood Is Not Dying” — Zurich Summit appeared first on Deadline.
