By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES(Reuters) -Jon Voight, one of three veteran actors named by U.S. President Donald Trump as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, is preparing to outline his plans to restore the entertainment industry’s Golden Age.
Voight — who rose to acclaim for playing a street hustler in the 1969 film “Midnight Cowboy” and received a best actor Oscar in 1979 for his portrayal of a paraplegic Vietnam War veteran in “Coming Home” — said he has witnessed the heavy toll production flight has taken on the acting community as well as on those who support filmmaking.
“Our hearts are broken,” Voight said in an interview with Reuters. “We see what has happened to this industry that has drawn us out here to California.”
“Our job is to create jobs,” he said. “To bring jobs back.”
Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, a filmmaker and producer best known for producing “Ghost Rider,” expect to meet as soon as next week with Trump to recommend federal tax incentives, production credits and job training.
Film and television production in Los Angeles has fallen by nearly 40% over the last decade, according to FilmLA, a non-profit that tracks the region’s production. Meanwhile, governments around the world have offered more generous tax credits and cash rebates to lure productions, and capture a greater share of the $248 billion that Ampere Analysis predicts will be spent globally in 2025 to produce content.
That has taken a toll on employment in Hollywood, where one recent Otis College report on the creative economy found 25% fewer film and TV jobs than in 2022.
“Many of my fellow actors — they’re really hurting, and their friends are hurting,” said Voight. “Every meeting we have, every interview, every interaction we have, I’m carrying those people in my heart.”
Trump appointed Voight and two other Hollywood veterans, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, in January, to bring Hollywood back “bigger, better and stronger than ever before.”
“These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest,” Trump wrote at the time, on his Truth Social platform.
Paul said he and Voight met with union leaders, entertainment executives, and California’s film commissioner, Colleen Bell, and others in open-ended conversations, to discuss possible solutions.
Among the recommendations they plan to propose is accelerating the timetable for writing off the cost of production under Section 181 of the U.S. tax code, said Scott Karol, president of Paul’s company, SP Media Group.
The group also supports legislative efforts to expand California’s Film and Television Tax Credit program, by more than doubling the amount of tax incentives the state offers to $750 million annually, up from the current level of $330 million. The state legislature also is evaluating whether to broaden the types of projects eligible for the program.
Paul, who last year was among the bidders for Paramount Global, said he is so committed to restoring production in Hollywood that he is negotiating to buy a small studio with its own sound stages, and plans to mount his next three film productions in Los Angeles. He declined to name the studio, because the deal is not finalized.
Voight recently starred in Paul’s productions of “Man with No Past” and “High Ground,” and will be in the upcoming film, “The Last Gunfight.”
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; edited by Ken Li and Sandra Maler)
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