North Carolina loses another Nicolas Sparks movie
Author: blake | Filed under: Film News, Upcoming
It was announced last Friday that writer, Nicolas Sparks, new film “The Lucky One” will not be filmed in it’s true location. The reason for this is because of lead actor’s, Zac Efron, salary is too high to be covered under North Carolina tax incentives. North Carolina’s taxes have seemed to doom the film industry in this state and has made several crew member to relocate to other states for work. It seems the North Carolina does not care about it’s down spiral of an economy and wants to continue to not make films in the state.
Lucky One will set up offices in New Orleans instead of Wilmington, NC. Louisiana offers film companies a 30 percent tax incentive on any project and has no caps on the size or talent pay. North Carolina’s 1 million dollar tax cap on talent pay is what threw this film out. Majority of actors get more then a million for a film, so I have no clue what they are thinking.
It is a shame that Wilmington, NC has to lose another film and have a huge hit on their economy due to greedy politicians. Bringing a big name star like Zac Efron would of brought several tourists to the area and would of increased business in film, restaurants, night life, etc.
Wilmington lost Sparks last film, Last Song, to Georgia last year. It starred Miley Cyrus who then went to local bars and sang for free. This brought in even more income to the area and was a kick in the face to Wilmington, NC. This area used to be a thriving area for film, but is now dying due to it’s state government and it’s greed.
We’re there recent changes made to these tax caps?
Yes, about a year after I posted this, North Carolina gained to reason and saw the light. There is currently a 25% tax break for films coming to NC. It has increased jobs and films coming to the area now. Currently in my area we have One Tree Hill filming, Teen Spirit, Revenge, Hicks, and Hart of Dixie all filming. Another Cinderella story recently wrapped, and so did Journey to Center of the Earth 2. We have Piranha 3DD coming here soon too.
The benefits have helped a lot, but now it is on the chopping block again. Republicans want to get rid of the tax cut and believe films will still come, we obviously saw proof of this last year that it was not true. Without that tax break we will not have films coming here.