(Reuters) -A coalition of American film industry unions and guilds, joined by veteran actor Jon Voight, has asked U.S. President Donald Trump to consider implementing tax incentives in his push to promote domestic film productions, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.
Along with Voight, the letter was signed by Sylvester Stallone and Teamsters union general president Sean O’Brien, among others. They call for Trump to support the inclusion of three film-friendly tax measures in a reconciliation package being drafted in Congress.
Voight and Stallone were also appointed by Trump as special ambassadors to Hollywood to strengthen the industry and bring filmmaking back to the country.
“Returning more production to the United States will require a national approach and broad-based policy solutions, including those we propose below as well as longer term initiatives such as implementing a federal film and television tax incentive,” the letter read.
Major media companies, including Walt Disney, Netflix and Universal Pictures, film overseas in countries such as Canada and Britain as governments around the world introduce credits and rebates to attract film productions.
Trump threw the entertainment industry into a flux earlier this month when he announced a 100% tariff on foreign-made movies, saying the American movie industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering.
The move left a lot of questions unanswered, such as when the duties would be implemented and how they would be enforced — as different components of a film are made in different countries and then assembled through post-production.
Trump’s tariff pronouncement followed his meeting with Voight along with other executives and advisers to mull a range of ideas to to revive domestic film and TV production, including federal tax incentives.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Alan Barona)
