David Simon‘s Blown Deadline Productions and Killer Films CEO Christine Vachon have both pledged to no longer shoot in Georgia so long as their “heartbeat bill” aka abortion ban stands as legislation.
The legislation was signed in to law on Tuesday by Republican Gov. Bill Kemp and bans abortion after a heartbeat is detected which can be as early as six weeks. There are exceptions to save the life of the mother or for rape and incest but only if a woman files a police report. Most don’t. The law goes in to effect in January.
Some have threatened to pull production from the state if the bill was signed in to law and at least two in Hollywood are standing by their word.
The MPAA isn’t taking much of a stand as they have said they are watching the courts to see what the final outcome is. A similar law in North Dakota in 2016 was overturned by the Supreme Court but with a right-wing shift of the court, it’s unknown if that decision may change if it goes before the court again
Georgia has tax incentives of up to 30 percent back which brought in 455 productions to the state last year with $2.7 billion in direct spending. There’s about 92,000 jobs in Georgia for film and production.
The Walking Dead, Ozark, and Stranger Things all shoot there and Marvel has used Pinewood Studios in Atlanta for some of their film productions.
