Will Smith cancels Georgia production | Stage

NEW YORK – Will Smith and director Fuqua have withdrawn production of their escaped slave drama “Emancipation” from Georgia due to the recently passed state election law restricting access to votes.

The film is the largest and most prominent Hollywood production to leave the state since the Republican-controlled state legislature passed the law.

The statute introduced stricter identification requirements for voters to submit absentee votes, limited the number of polling stations, and gave the state election council new powers to intervene in the county electoral offices and to remove and replace local electoral authorities. Opponents of the law say it is designed to influence minority voting.

In a joint statement, Smith and Fuqua – producers of the project – said they felt determined to withdraw production from Georgia.

“We cannot provide financial support in a clear conscience to a government that passes regressive electoral laws designed to restrict voter access,” said Smith and Fuqua. “Georgia’s new electoral laws are a reminder of the electoral barriers passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting.”

“Emancipation” was to start filming in June. Apple Studios acquired the film last year in a deal that reportedly amounted to $ 130 million. Based on a true story, the film stars Smith as a slave who escapes from a Louisiana plantation and joins the Union Army.

Hollywood’s response to Georgian law has been closely watched as the state is a major center for film production and offers generous tax breaks. Some filmmakers have said they will boycott the law, including “Ford v. Ferrari” director James Mangold.

But in the older studios it was usually quiet. In 2019, an anti-abortion law in Georgia (which was later declared unconstitutional) led studios to threaten to stop producing in the state.