On a rusty boat trailer behind the lifeguard operations center at Will Rogers State Beach on Santa Monica Bay sits a reminder of the recent screen glory days here: It is a bright yellow rescue skiff, numbered BW1, with the flame-red logo Baywatch, blazoned the side. Baywatch is back, in a feature-film send up of the…

Louisiana's scaled-back film tax incentives program put a huge dent in jobs for film crews there. Facing a severe budget crunch, the state last year slashed its annual budget for the incentives to $180 million – down from $222 million spent in 2014. That 19% reduction, however, triggered a 75% loss of jobs for union…

As California moves closer to quadrupling tax incentives for film production, North Carolina is moving in the opposite direction, cutting its program this week by two-thirds. The Tar Heel state joins a growing list of those that have scaled back their incentives programs or eliminated them altogether. Pushback from…

Sony Pictures Imageworks announced late Thursday that its headquarters will relocate to Vancouver, leaving the fate of its 270 Culver City VFX workers in question. The Oscar-winning VFX and digital animation wing of Sony recently handled effects on WB’s Tom Cruise sci-fier Edge of Tomorrow and Sony-Columbia’s The Amazi…

Warner Bros.‘ three Hobbit films have racked up over half a billion dollars in production costs, reports the AP, citing Kiwi financial filings that say Peter Jackson has spent $676 million New Zealand dollars ($561 million US) so far on his LOTR follow-ups. But that figure’s just the total so far as of March 31 and…

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced the creation of a new post-production, VFX, and animation company to be established at the Tri-Main Center in Buffalo, NY. Empire Visual Effects and Daemen College will partner on the project which is expected to bring 150 new jobs within five years to the western NY…

The new study provides some statistical ammo for those in the Commonwealth who like the tax break, and are still smarting from a state Department of Revenue report in March that raised questions about whether it makes sense. The MPAA commissioned analysis from HR&A Advisors says that the state’s $37.9M in tax credits…

Ross Lincoln is a Deadline contributor. Medient Studios, a Los Angeles-based production and distribution outfit with a presence in India, has announced plans to build a $90 million movie studio near Savannah, GA in a deal cleared this week by the Effingham County Industrial Development…

UPDATE 3:30 PM SATURDAY: After Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed the measure on Friday, the state House and Senate repackaged the film and TV tax credit as part of broader legislation to provide tax cuts and other incentives for more types of business. The production tax credit will rise to 30% from 25% for a qualifying TV…

Studios enjoyed their best year ever at domestic box offices in 2012 — but still managed to persuade lawmakers that movie and TV investors need a sweet tax deduction to keep the cameras rolling in the U.S. The new agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff collection of spending cuts and tax hikes includes a…

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development is taking a victory lap today, saying that tax breaks the administration supported resulted in a record 24 film and TV productions that plan to do their post production work in the Empire State. In July the state increased the post…

The credit could go as high as 35% for work done upstate — where officials are especially eager to promote economic development. Since the program began in 2004, the state has issued $1.04B in tax credits for projects with an estimated economic value of $7.57B. Related: TV Production Takes Another Big Hit Says FilmL.A…