Leonardo DiCaprio EP’d ‘Akira’ Scores In Latest California Tax Credits Allocation

02/04/2019 - The name Leonardo DiCaprio seems to be a little bit golden when it comes to the Golden State and tax incentives for film and television.

The Oscar winner saw the Quentin Tarantino directed Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, in which DiCaprio co-stars with Brad Pitt, awarded over $18 million from California’s $330 million annual incentives program in 2017. Now DiCaprio’s Appian Way shingle has been allocated $18.5 million for a live action version of Akira from Warner Bros. Having gestated for a number of years, The Departed star executive produced adaptation of anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s 6-volume classic graphic novel was among 18 feature films that were unveiled today as successful recipients of the last round of allocations from the state and the California Film Commission.

With a duo of big bucks projects from Paramount, plus Cry, Baby and more in there, check out the full list and allocation awards of the 10 studios flicks and eight indies below: “We are thrilled with the opportunity to shoot Akira in California,” said Ravi Mehta, Warner Bros. Pictures EVP of physical production and finance on Tuesday of the film and the tax credits it has been awarded. “The availability of top-notch crew members, plus the wide variety of location choices and predictable weather are second to none,” the exec added of the upcoming project. Eager to display that the 13th big budget film to receive tax credits since the program was expanded back in 2014 is a good financial bet, the CFC reckons Akira will create a total of $92 million in spending in Cali during production – which is serious cash all round. In full, the math for this latest round of awards for the 18 films is estimated to generate about $408 million in what the CFC call “qualified expenditures.” Set to film entirely in the Golden State, the also Andrew Lazar produced Akira itself is estimated to generate $43 million in wages to 200 below-the line crew members and more than 5,000 extras during its 71 days of filming. Having seen his name floated around in the past in connection to the project, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is still on-board to helm Akira, I hear. BTW, though that $18.5 million that Akira has been allocated is a pretty nice chunk of change from the state, it is not actually the most that California has handed out to a pic since the tax incentives program started accepting applications from tentpole projects five years ago. So far, the two spots belong to the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee and the LeBron James starring Space Jam 2 with $22.4 million and $21.8 million in credits respectively. Of course, that could change after the next round of big screen applications are digitally submitted from June 17-21 this year. In terms of the small screen, the next application period for TV projects is May 20-24, with the allocations expected to be announced some time in late June or early July.

(DEADLINE)