Hawaii film industry in jeopardy amid the opening of Lilo and Stitch
By Kristen Consillio
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HONOLULU, Hawaii (KITV) — With no major productions in the islands for the first time in more than 20 years, many in the film industry are desperate for the state to attract more business.
“We have too many people that have lost their insurance. We have too many people that are on unemployment,” said independent film producer Eric Hays. “We have too many people that are having problems, you know, paying the rent, mortgage, paying, you know, for kids, schools.”
And they said all the political finger pointing is not helping.
“It takes everybody to get into the same boat, you know, everyone’s got to be on the same page,” he said. “And that goes for all unions to all filmmakers, to everybody. To politicians, everybody here has to be unified.”
Most recently, lawmakers deferred a bill that would’ve increased tax credits, making Hawaii more attractive when competing with other states and countries for film productions.
“Right now we are seen as a fractured industry here, with different unions and different things, but it can all be fixed,” Hays added. “The film industry was a thriving industry for, you know, many, many years here and that needs to be our goal is to bring productions back, get the ‘ohana back to work.”
The state currently still has tax credits of up to $17 million per production — and DBEDT director Jimmy Tokioka said they’re doing everything they can to attract more filmmakers.
“You just have to continue to work with studios that have had history in Hawaii,” he said. “We have the two biggest movie stars in Hollywood, Jason Momoa and Dwayne Johnson, and they through their producers every time a production is offered to them, they request to have it filmed in Hawaii, because they love being here so much.”
Tokioka said he’ll continue lobbing for tax credits for the movie industry.
In recent weeks, the last major production — Rescue High Surf — was cancelled, leaving many workers without jobs.
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