Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton on Thursday released his five-point plan to revive California‘s sagging film and television industry, noting, “The lights are literally going out in Hollywood.”
A former Fox News host who announced his governor bid a year ago, Hilton is the GOP front-runner in the race, according to several polls this week. He appeared at the site of the shuttered Cinerama Dome in Hollywood on Thursday to tout his ideas on how to boost movie and TV production in the Golden State.
Read Hilton’s plan in full here.
“California invented the entertainment business,” he wrote. “Hollywood became the global center for film and television, supported by world-class talent, crews, studios, and infrastructure. But that advantage is slipping away.”
The former adviser to then-UK Prime Minister David Cameron ran through some reasons that production is moving out of the state, including “rigid application windows, complex categories and limited access for smaller productions.” He also cited that competitors in other regions “operate faster, simpler and more competitive systems — often without caps.”
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Hilton’s five-point plan to fight runaway production is:
- Make California competition again.
- Give producers clarity and certainty.
- Protect independent and mid-sized productions.
- Make the incentives real.
- Protect California’s creative future.
“The bottom line,” he wrote, is that “Hollywood should not be leaving Hollywood.” he noted that California still has “the talent, the workforce, the infrastructure, the global brand” but said, “What it has lacked is leadership.”
Donald Trump has endorsed Hilton for governor, and the Republican hopeful took part in this week’s bipartisan debate at Pomona College. That spirited event also featured fellow GOP hopeful, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Blanco, along with six Democrats: ex-state Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Rep. Katie Porter, busiessman Tom Steyer, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Former Rep. Eric Swalwell quit the governor’s race this month and resigned from Congress amid multiple allegations of sexual abuse.
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