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Further details have been published on Jon Voight’s plan to “make Hollywood great again”, which is also expected to impact the television industry.
On Sunday (4 May), Donald Trump declared his desire to impose tariffs on foreign-made films, with the plan reportedly being spearheaded by Voight, the Oscar-winning actor who was named as one of the president’s “special ambassadors to fix Hollywood” earlier this year.
Details about the controversial plan have been scarce following Trump’s declaration, but Deadline reported on Monday that a team comprised of Voight, 86, special adviser Steven Paul, and SP Media Group/Atlas Comics president Scott Karol has submitted a proposal to Trump at his Mar-A-Lago resort, detailing how film production in the US can be boosted.
A draft of the plan has now been published by Deadline, which includes details of a 10 per cent federal tax incentive for all film and television productions as well as demanding that productions meet a minimum threshold American “cultural test”.
A similar test is currently in place in the UK where a film must pass the UK Film Council's cultural test, based on requirements such as whether or not the story reflects British culture, or is part of an official co-production. As the US is the largest producer of entertainment and culture in the world, this has not previously been considered a problem for the country’s industry.
Another key detail in Voight’s plan is a 10 per cent federal tax credit that would be “stackable” on what states such as California, Georgia and New York already provide. A 20 per cent credit would be provided for states without a current incentive to make films or TV shows. Separate incentives would be offered for cinema owners, production facilities, visual effects, and AI teams.
In contrast, if a US-based production, such as Avengers: Doomsday, which is currently filming in the UK, “could have been produced in the US, but the producer elects to produce in a foreign country and receives a production tax incentive therefor, a tariff will be placed on that production equal to 120 per cent of the value of the foreign incentive received”, claims the draft.
Voight, who won an Oscar in 1979 for his role as paraplegic war veteran Luke Martin in the film Coming Home, is also targeting streamers and television companies as he wishes to restore the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule, otherwise known as fin-syn rules, which were abolished more than 30 years ago by the Federal Communications Commission.
These rules prevented the major networks from owning their prime-time programming. Voight wants to reimpose that restriction and apply it to streaming services, eradicating what he calls “draconian licensing terms”, which the likes of Netflix currently benefit from.
Deadline adds that the plan will not only affect major film and TV studios and streaming services but also cable television companies and digital platforms like YouTube.
On Sunday, the White House appeared to play down the severity of Trump’s tariffs, with spokesperson Kush Desai telling the Hollywood Reporter: “Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the administration is exploring all options to deliver on president Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again.”
Midnight Cowboy and Runaway Train actor Voight is the father of fellow Hollywood icon Angelina Jolie, who has distanced herself from Voight for most of her adult life. Up until her mother’s death from ovarian cancer in 2007, Jolie had been estranged from her father. They reconciled after her death, and in 2017, Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter that she and her father now have a good relationship, stating that they “have gotten to know each other – through grandchildren now”.
Their relationship appears to be strained again, after Voight slammed his daughter’s views on the Israel-Hamas war and accused her of spreading “lies” on social media.
The Girl, Interrupted actor, 49, formerly a special envoy of the UN High Commission for Refugees, shared a post where she accused Israel of “deliberately bombing children, women, families, deprived of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid” in violation of the international law.
In response, Voight said he was “disappointed that my daughter... has no understanding of God’s honour, God’s truth” in a fiery video statement shared on X/Twitter on 4 November 2023, before adding: “The Israeli army must protect thy soil.”
English (US) ·