Suts:LA, Community Movie Among California Tax Credits Recipients

Suits: LA is going to be filming in the City of Angels in no small part thanks to some hefty help from Sacramento.

Along with the long-anticipated – The Movie, a look at Hulk Hogan’s pile-driving destruction of Gawker from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and a Shailene Woodley starring Janis Joplin biopic, the Stephen Amell-led series is one of 19 projects that were announced today. Overall, the projects will receive a total of $51.6 million in incentives from California’s film and TV tax credits program.

In total, the 18 features and Suits: LA are expected to employ 2,768 crew members, 1,086 cast members, and 16,997 background performers. The California Film Commission estimates the projects will together generate an estimated $284.4 million in qualified expenditures with $112.1 million of that going to qualified wages. This spending will employ 2,768 crew members, 1,086 cast members, and 16,997 background performers

Having shot its pilot in Vancouver, the relocation of the NBC drama to California under the Golden State’s $150 million per year Soundstages program is a sweet coup, especially with work so scarce of late in the home of Hollywood. Luring shows like Suits: LA away from other jurisdictions like British Columbia and its lucrative tax credits has been on the primary goals of California’s $330 million annual program since its revitalization in 2014.

“Suits LA is a show whose characters are deeply ensconced in the world of film and television,” said showrunner Aaron Korsh this morning with the news the show was allocated almost $12 million by the state. “Being able to shoot here will be a huge part of the show’s authenticity. More importantly, thanks to the Soundstage Program, we’re able to provide employment for Los Angeles-based cast and crew who have been starving for opportunities at home.”

To be specific, thanks to the 2022 instigated Soundstages program, over the first season of Universal Content Productions LLC’s Suits: LA will employ 175 crew members, 280 cast members, 2184 background players. That will add up to an estimated nearly $51 million in qualified expenditures in the state over Suits: LA’s  nearly 100 days of production in California – as you can see on the chart below.

By the way, if you are wondering why a TV show is on the CFC list for what is supposed to be a film allocation period, it is simply because of the timing of the Soundstages Program allocation itself.  

To that end, joining a long-ish list of attempts to bring the life of the iconic Joplin to the big screen, Big Little Lies alum Woodley has thrown her hat into the Pearl singer arena with a project she is both filming and producing.

“California meant so much to Janis Joplin – from the stoops of San Francisco to the wooden walls of Sunset Sound, the state became the stage upon which she explored not just the world of music, but the world of her vibrant humanity,” said actor and producerWoodley Tuesday of the Texas-born singer.

“Being a Los Angeles native myself, and having grown up working alongside industry locals, knowing our film will be created with some of the most gifted, passionate, and devotional people leaves me giddy,” the Emmy and Golden Globe nominee added of the $2.5 million in credits the Temple Hill backed project received from the job centric CA program  “I have a feeling Janis would be smiling ear to ear zipping down the PCH in her psychedelic Porsche knowing her story is bringing opportunities and funding to the city and people that held so much significance to her. Thank you to the California Film Commission’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program – myself and the other producers on this project believe California is the only place to film a slice of Janis’s life with authenticity and truth – and we are so grateful to have received the green light to do so!”

In terms of future allocation periods, the next round for TV series opened yesterday and runs until September 11 with successful recipients revealed by the CFC in mid-October. Another small screen round follows next month with applications being accepted digitally from October 21-23, with a late November approval date. On the big screen, the next round comes in early 2025 around the time of Sundance. Applications for tax credits for Independent and non-Independent Feature films are being taken from January 27-29 next year. The successful applicants for that round will be notified in early March 2025.