After weeks of outrage over Georgia’s highly controversial new voting laws – including backlash from Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball – a Will Smith-backed production “Emancipation” has opted to pull out of the state.
As reported in Variety, Will Smith and filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, both owners of production companies funding the film, released a joint statement on the matter:
“Right now, the nation is coming to terms with its history and trying to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism in order to achieve true racial justice,” the statement said.
“We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws designed to restrict voter access. that many Americans vote. Unfortunately, we feel compelled to move our film production operations from Georgia to another state. “
“Emancipation” was set to begin filming on June 21, with Fuqua directing from a script by William N. Collage. In the thriller, Smith plays Peter, a self-emancipated person who is fleeing Louisiana for the promise of freedom in the North.
Georgia has quickly become a favorite location for filming movies and TV shows, with moderate weather, great tax breaks and studio credits, as well as versatility in landscapes for different environments.
A 2016 Time magazine article shows that more feature films were made in the state of Georgia than California that year, a figure that has continued to increase, with billions of dollars invested in the peach state, in addition to creating thousands of jobs. .
With those numbers, manufacturing companies moving to other states could pose problems not only for the Georgians currently employed by the industry, but also for the entire state economy.
The controversy is due to a bill recently signed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), purported to tackle widespread voter fraud and identity theft.
Many argue that the bill – which aims to drastically change access to absentee voting and ballot boxes and even prevent volunteers from offering food and drink to those waiting to cast their vote – is a direct response to the results of the 2020 election, which turned the historically red state to blue, and lead to the loss of former President Donald Trump.
Trump, like many within the Republican Party, has advocated for tougher voter identification methods to address voter fraud claims, most of which have been proven to be unfounded.
Politicians and activists alike have spoken out about the potential danger posed by this legislation, with President Joe Biden calling it “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”
Smith and Fuqua’s decision to switch locations follows the MLB’s choice in late March to move their All-Star game and 2021 draft out of Georgia as a result of the bill.
And this choice could be the first in a trend of many. Director James Mangold, known for such films as “Ford v. Ferrari,” “The Wolverine” and “Girl, Interrupted” tweeted that he “won’t direct a movie in Georgia,“and” Star Wars “veteran Mark Hamill also expressed support for the boycott production efforts in protest against the bill.