Flipping The Script Could Florida’s 10-year drought on film incentives be coming to a close?

Kevin and Sam Sorbo have called Florida home since 2019. The famously conservative actors arrived shortly after the election of Gov. Ron DeSantis, though Sam admits it was weather, family connections and the existing tax climate that truly attracted them.

The Sorbos have loved raising their own family in the Sunshine State, and embrace the heat and humidity with fervor. But for a pair of working actors, the state lacks a level of work to guarantee them a livelihood.

“It would be better,” Sam Sorbo said, “if there was more of an industry in the state.”

The Sorbos these days run their own production company. Kevin long ago hung up his Hercules tunics and now stars primarily in Christian films. But like many filmmakers, the two can’t make the numbers work to shoot in Florida even when they call the shots and would prefer to film the state where they live.

“Let There Be Light,” a film directed by Kevin and written by Sam, was shot in Alabama. The production ended up there because massive activity in Georgia made it difficult to find enough crew in the Atlanta area. But no realistic consideration was ever given to the Sorbos’ adopted home state.

“When you look for places to do production, you start by seeing who has incentives and how good they are,” Sam Sorbo shared. “Some states don’t actually follow through on offered incentives. But Florida just doesn’t make the list. Weather does not make enough of an incentive. For us, we live here so we have that as an incentive, but we are typically not shooting here.”

There’s a possibility the shooting conditions could change this year.

It’s now been a full decade since Florida last authorized any type of incentives for film producers. And while almost $300 million in incentives doled out over six years attracted movie and television productions that proved enormously successful, the state in intervening years has shown no interest in renewing a film program.

In January, Rep. Dana Trabulsy, a Fort Pierce Republican, unveiled a proposal (HB 251) for a reimagined film program in Florida. The legislation would establish a Florida First Production Partnership Program, which could facilitate tax credit awards for entertainment industry products. Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, is sponsoring a Senate companion (SB 476).

Film Florida Executive Director John Lux said the program would provide a needed boost to an industry that once thrived in the state but has since lost ground to other Southern states.

“Florida is currently at a competitive disadvantage, this innovative pilot program will help put Florida small businesses on a level playing field with the likes of Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, North Carolina, and others in our region,” he said.

While Georgia has seen a $4 billion industry boom as Atlanta becomes a film capitol, Florida has languished.

That’s all the more frustrating in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when California lockdown restrictions drove many productions out of a state that was already losing film projects thanks to its tax environment.

Actress Jennifer Aspen, who has appeared in numerous TV movies such as “A Cozy Christmas Inn” and “You Had Me at Aloha,” moved her family to Florida during the pandemic when work evaporated. She arrived in Pinellas County and felt an initial culture shock.

“I’m embarrassed to admit it now but my first thought was everyone was going to die,” she said. “Everything was open and it was starting to be winter. But Los Angeles locked down fully with curfews, and they had gobs more COVID than Florida that winter. So I threw in the towel and joined the party.”

So she stayed here. But she hasn’t been able to find a single acting job the entire time. Rather, she’s flown to Canada and Hawaii to find work.

Similarly, actress Catherine Bell moved her family to Florida because she knew schools were open in 2020, and her child was not doing well with virtual school. A friend of Aspen after both starred in the series “Army Wives,” she came to Florida and also made it her home.

But she also can’t find work in the Sunshine State. She filmed a series of

“Good Witch” movies that required flying to Toronto.

The reality of modern filmmaking is that available incentives can cut the cost of a production by as much as a third, she said. Bell recalled having to speak to South Carolina lawmakers who were considering yanking the incentives there while “Army Wives” was still shooting. She was told the series would unquestionably have to relocate if state support vanished.

“I went and spoke to these guys and talked about what you don’t always see,” she said. “I had moved to South Carolina and had my son in private school there. But we also had all these Charleston people on our crew. But we also had all of our furniture, wardrobe and food from there, and that’s a lot for just one TV show.”

Within the Legislature, there’s been a quiet fear for years that incentivizing film might just attract liberal Hollywood with it to the conservative state. But for the actors already moving here, that’s laughable. Bell considers herself slightly conservative in her views. Kevin Sorbo has developed a reputation online as a conservative social media voice, and Sam Sorbo is active in promoting home schools and educational choice.

Sam Sorbo scoffs at assertions that Georgia shifted blue when Hollywood shot more films there. “It’s facetious to blame Hollywood for the blue-ing of Georgia,” she said. “Georgia has a problem in its Legislature. How has Hollywood influenced that?”

She suggested more conservative filmmakers might actually flock to Florida, especially since DeSantis has developed such a national profile promoting conservative policies.

As for Aspen, she said her time spent working in red states has actually changed her outlook on politics.

“I was liberal Hollywood,” she said. “I traveled for work to Tennessee and Georgia, and honestly, it was that travel into places that opened my mind to what essentially a red state is. I got more understanding for that, and more respect for that.”