California Film Tax Credit Hits Snag Over Industry Diversity

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that he was “very worried” about the WGA strike, warning that “every single one of us will be impacted by this.”

Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to Babak Jalali’a immigrant drama Fremont, which premiered to acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival before moving on to SXSW, slating it for release in theaters later in the year, with a home entertainment bow to follow.

Naman Ramachandran Music Box Films has acquired the North American distribution rights to “Fremont,” the critically acclaimed drama from Iranian-British filmmaker Babak Jalali. The film, which premiered to much acclaim in the Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section and later screened at SXSW, stars newcomer Anaita Wali Zada alongside Gregg Turkington and Jeremy Allen White. “Fremont” follows mid-20s Afghan refugee Donya, played by real-life refugee Anaita Wali Zada, who is struggling to adjust to her new surroundings in Fremont, California. Working at a fortune cookie factory and having lonely dinners at a local restaurant, Donya finds it challenging to connect with the culture and people around her. However, an unexpected revelation leads her to use her cookies to build a bridge to the outside world.

More than one million people in receipt of Tax Credits from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are set to receive a cost of living payment worth £301 from Tuesday, May 2. The first part of the £900 means-tested support package for those on Working Tax Credits or Child Tax Credits will be paid until May 9, 2023.

Emily Longeretta If anyone can successfully close out a packed desert show on Stagecoach Festival’s opening day, it’s Luke Bryan, who’s been playing at the festival for more than a dozen years and previously headlined in 2014, 2016 and 2019. On Friday night, he opened with a song that might as well have been written for the occasion, “I Don’t Want This Night to End,” and played a set that consisted of nearly all his hits, and a few surprise covers. In addition to his many party anthems — “Drink a Beer,” “Roller Coaster,” “Crash My Party” and “Play it Again” came all in a row — he also sprinkled in covers of Tim McGraw’s “Where the Green Grass Grows” and Brooks and Dunn’s “Neon Moon.”

Per the Los Angeles Times, a Southern California police employee molested over 200 children — and he got away with it for over 30 years before he was finally arrested.

Spring has sprung — which means it’s time to look ahead to winter. Organizers of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival said today that its 39th annual event will run February 7-17 in the coastal California town.

HMRC has warned that more than a million benefits claimants will need to take action or they will have their payments stopped this summer. Those who claim tax credits will receive a renewal pack from the government department between Tuesday, May 2 and Thursday, June 15.

Remember how Blac Chyna admitted on the record last April that she hadn’t been paying her taxes for years?! Yeah, that didn’t just disappear…

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced that it has written to over one million people on Tax Credits advising them about the upcoming £301 cost of living payment, due to start arriving in bank accounts between May 2 and 9, 2023. Letters are expected to arrive between April 19 and 24 and will confirm whether a claimant is due the first part of the £900 means-tested cost of living support.

Frank Ocean made a highly-anticipated return to the stage at California's Coachella festival over the weekend, but the show ended up disastrous and fans have blasted his comeback performance as "terrible."

Citadel doesn’t premiere on Amazon Prime Video until April 28, but the spy thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden is set for a second season, and it’s coming to California.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Amazon has been awarded $35.3 million in state tax incentives for TV production, including the largest amount ever granted by the state of California for a single film or TV season. “Citadel,” a big-budget spy thriller set to debut on April 28, was awarded $25 million to relocate to California from the U.K. for its second season. The show is expected to pay $119 million in “qualified” expenditures — which include below-the-line workers and California vendors — making it the biggest show ever lured from out of state by the credit. The Hollywood Reporter has called the show “pricey and troubled,” noting that its first-season budget soared above $200 million due to a change in the creative team and extensive reshoots.

Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studios’ respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that brink, the studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream monies they can bring. Not to mention their power in launching IPs around the world with big global marketing campaigns. When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament for 2022, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Hollywood studios and entertainment unions are close to a compromise on a new California law to tighten set safety rules, which comes in response to the fatal “Rust” shooting. The compromise would adopt the film industry’s firearm safety rules, which are currently voluntary, into state law. It would also mandate specialized training for armorers and others who work with firearms on sets, according to sources familiar with the talks. The two sides have been working for more than a year on the legislation following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in New Mexico in October 2021.

Faye Winter has hit back at nasty trolls, who had been body-shaming her after she shared a snap in which she sported a low-cut dress.The photo saw the former Love Island star, 27, posing on a night-out while wearing a glittering low-cut cowl-neck dress. Captioning the stunning snap, she wrote: "What is it they say about rolling it in glitter [diamond emoji]" and while she received compliments from the likes of Tasha Ghouri, Vicky Pattison, and Liberty Poole, not every comment was particularly nice.

UK fans of singing superstar Taylor Swift have been excited by reported sightings of the Anti-Hero hitmaker. Taylor, 33, is understood to have flown over from the United States to film a music video.

Michael Beale blasted the controversial VAR decision to rule out an Alfredo Morelos goal at Parkhead and claimed the officials also failed to spot a handball at Celtic’s decisive second in a ding-dong five-goal derby thriller at Parkhead.

EXCLUSIVE: Alfred Hitchcock won the AFI’s Life Achievement Award in 1979, but now there is another Hitchcock moving up in the organization.

While “Solo: A Star Wars Story” isn’t one of the premier films in the franchise, most people can agree that Donald Glover’s performance as a young Lando Calrissian is pretty great. And there have been rumors about more Glover in the galaxy far, far away, but no confirmation that it’ll happen.