“Hollywood is not dying,” said Rena Ronson d’Uta to the delegates at the top of Zurich this weekend. “I think it has evolved and that our world has become more global, but it would certainly not die. It is very relevant and it is always the center for talent. ”
Ronson stressed that the production landscape has “evolved” as the industry has become more global, but stressed that productions shooting abroad are nothing new for the company.
“Admittedly, probably on the basis of tax incentives and regional financing that exist abroad, there has been a little more change in filming abroad, but it is not new,” she said. “We have already seen it with films shot in New Zealand or Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland. There are tons of films that have not been shot in the United States before, because it made sense in a creative or financial way. »»
Ronson was joined by Sarah Schweitzman of the CAA Media Finance, the CEO of Goodfellas Vincent Maraval and the Abduljalil Al-Nasser of the Saudi Film Commission where the leaders weighed on the emergence of European and international production centers and incentives and the changing role of Hollywood in today’s affairs.
“I think that if you do not move with it and you want and hope that everything comes back to the way it was 20 or 30 years ago, then I think that in the end, you will be disappointed,” said Schweitzman. “But all our work in what we are doing is trying to find solutions for puzzles to assemble films. I think that about half of us, films are turned abroad and I think we have a lot of work to do in the United States to bring production.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom has recently expanded the state’s film and television tax credit to $ 750 million a year over the next five years, which Schweitzman noted was a “enormous effort” and that the company is already advantages.
“I have a film which is supposed to shoot in the fall in Los Angeles and I must say that the process of crossing the tax committee and doing all this has been relatively transparent compared to the last two years,” she said. “So we hope that we will be able to shoot more in the United States, but also excited to shoot elsewhere.”
She continued: “I do not think that anyone who sees a complete disappearance of production in California. I think it will improve. I think there is a desire and obviously, it depends on the question of content. There are certain movies and television series which must simply be shot in a certain place, so I think that people will always go to places that have more sense for this particular production.”
Maraval noted that the role of Hollywood has changed enormously in the last decade, pointing to the release of this weekend by Paul Thomas Anderson One battle after another With Leonardo DiCaprio. This film plans a global opening weekend of $ 48.5 million, of which $ 22.4 million are from the United States and Canada, while the Japanese title Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle won a huge domestic opening of $ 70 million a few weeks ago.
“Look at the opening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film, who is a masterpiece,” said Maraval. “But you watch the figures and the previous week, a Japanese anime film has changed five times more. Something has changed. Not only has changed your taste, but the desires of the public have changed.”
Maraval explained how the historical difference in European projects in relation to financing projects in the United States, finally pushed it to set up the holding based in Los Angeles to veterans. He told delegates that when he directed Wild Bunch and that they sold foreign rights to the American title of Oliver Stone SnowThey had to “report daily”.
“It’s a different world,” he said. “We were not equipped to do so. [set up a company] In the United States, because it was just a different way to do it and, of course, we wanted to access talent. »»
Maraval added: “At the time, I would say that 90% of private investors for cinema were in Hollywood and that is why we decided that two companies had two different jobs. But that has changed a lot since then.”
When they have been in a hurry on the desire of Saudi Arabia to attract productions to shoot in the region, Al-Nasser de la Saudi Film Commission said: “We do not focus on Hollywood”.
“We focus more on productions from around the world”, adding this Indian title 2023 DinkiWith Shah Rukh Khan, turned in KSA.
“Our philosophy here is to build the film industry as a modern cinematographic industry which will be significant for as many productions as possible and make our country a center for international cinema.”
