Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling's Gray Man receives $20m California tax credit

Netflix’s action-thriller Gray Man, starring Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling, has been selected for $20m production tax credit allocated by the California Film Commission.

This credit for Joe and Anthony Russo’s film is by far the largest amount among the $50m in conditional allocations for nine film projects. Others include $8.4m for an untitled Jordan Peele project; $2.5m for Amazon Studios’ sci-fi thriller Invasion, starring Octavia Spencer; $2.3m for the Jessica Chastain drama Losing Clementine; and $1.4m for the sports drama Sweetwater about the first African American player in the NBA.

Gray Man is based on a series of best-sellers from Mark Greaney. Gosling will portray an ex-CIA operative who becomes a killer for hire and is pursued by a former colleague, played by Evans.

The California Film Commission said Gray Man will bring an estimated $102m in below-the-line wages and other qualified expenditures to the state, behind only Captain Marvel on the list of big-budget tax credit film projects.

These latest movies are part of the first round of film projects selected for California’s latest dispersion of film and television tax credits, which went into effect July 1 and drew 81 applicants.

“After announcing two relocating TV series earlier this month, our new tax credit program continues to get off to a great start with today’s list of film projects,” California Film Commission Executive Director Colleen Bell said in a statement. “Production activity is ramping back up in California amid COVID-19, and Program 3.0 is attracting the kind of big budget films that generate a considerable amount of jobs and in-state spending.”

That said, some producers have decided to pause on resuming filming due to Covid-19, with most of the filming in Los Angeles County limited to smaller-scale productions, primarily commercials and TV programs shooting on sound stages.

However, Joel Coen’s Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, has managed to resume filming at the Warner Bros Studios across July and August under strict Covid-19 protocols.