Hollywood to monitor Georgia politics

Several of Hollywood’s major film and TV production conglomerates have said they will be monitoring Georgia’s abortion bill.

Earlier this week, Netflix became the first large production entity to suggest it could decide not to film in Georgia if the controversial ‘heartbeat’ abortion bill should become law in the US state.

Now WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Disney have publicly objected to the planned legislation.

The corporations’ general position is that Georgia production may need to be re-evaluated should the abortion bill become law.

However, while the state governor supports the bill, it is likely to be challenged in the courts, further prolonging potential implementation and meaning it could be a considerable amount of time before Hollywood studios would need to make firm decisions.

Georgia is one of the top filming locations in America for movie and TV production, and a switch to other parts of the country would be a seismic change for the location filming landscape in America.

The Motion Picture Association of America has pointed out that the production industry in Georgia supports more than 92,000 local jobs – and crew are anecdotally on both sides of the political divide – and this brings an added complication to any considerations for future boycotts of the state.

See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Georgia.

Image: iStock.com/Marje