Amazon’s ‘Citadel’ Becomes Highest-Spending Production to Move to California With $119 Million in Expenditures
“Citadel,” Amazon Studios’ new spy thriller starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, doesn’t premiere until April 28 on Prime Video, but plans for its second season are already heating up — this time in California. The Russo Brothers-produced series will move production from the U.K., becoming California’s highest-spending relocating TV series to date with an estimated $119 million in qualified expenditures, the California Film Commission announced on Monday. The show will benefit from $25 million in tax credits.
Russo Brothers’ AGBO executive produce, along with Josh Applebaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio.
HBO’s “Wondermill,” which is relocating from Oregon, also qualifies for the state’s latest round of film and television tax credits, as do five new TV projects: “Forever” from Netflix Productions; BET drama “True to the Game” (based on the film trilogy of the same name); “Paradise City” from Twentieth Century Fox Corporation and an untitled series from Amazon Studios and Paramount Global each.
“We’re thrilled that our tax credit program is welcoming such a diverse range of TV projects in terms of storytelling, budget and employment,” California Film Commission Executive Director Colleen Bell said in a statement shared with TheWrap.
“A project like ‘True to the Game’ affirms that our tax credit program also addresses the needs of smaller-scale yet still very impactful TV projects.”
“Thanks to California’s tax credit program, I will be able to work here in my home state,” said “True to the Game” director Vivica A. Fox, who played Shoog in the three films based on the writing of Teri Woods. “Executive Producer Manny Halley looks forward to producing the franchise here and creating hundreds of high-quality jobs in California.”
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These projects will spend an estimated $527 million in California during their first season and employ 1,585 crew, 629 cast, and 19,994 background actors, according to the film commission. They will spend an estimated 646 filming days in California, including 23 shoot days planned outside the Los Angeles 30-Mile Studio Zone.
The latest tax credit application period was held March 6-20. A total of $80.4 million in tax credit allocation has been reserved for the seven projects selected. The list of conditionally approved projects is subject to change, as applicants may withdraw from the tax credit program and their reservation of credits reassigned to one or more projects on the wait list.
The next application period for TV projects will be held June 5 to 12. The next application period for feature films will be held July 24 to 31.
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