Lionsgate Responded to Anti-LGBT Law HB2 by Moving Production of a New TV Show From North Carolina
“Crushed†is a new TV show Lionsgate is producing for Hulu. The major studio had planned to film in the Charlotte, North Carolina area but one day after Gov. Pat McCrory signed anti-LGBT bill HB2 into law, Lionsgate changed its plans.
“Lionsgate, the California-based entertainment company, had been lining up hotel and equipment rentals and hiring more than 100 workers in North Carolina,” Fox 46 reports, “but decided to shoot its pilot episode for a comedy series in Canada instead, said Jennifer Irvine, a Charlotte production coordinator.”
The Charlotte Observer calls it “the latest fallout” from HB2, stating the new law prompted “Lionsgate to pull production.”
“Jennifer Irvine, who was hired as the local production office coordinator for the show, said the studio informed employees March 24 that it was pulling the plug on the show. Several contractors also confirmed they were told the show had been pulled in Charlotte,” the Observer reports.
Irvine says the film and TV industry has suffered under McCrory, after the state canceled tax incentives.Â
“We were just starting to trickle back,” she says. But when Gov. McCrory signed HB2, “he tainted the film industry all over again.”
Lionsgate “said House Bill 2 is ‘deplorable and discriminatory, and it runs counter to everything we stand for,’ according to a letter obtained by the Observer that was issued by Lionsgate on behalf of ‘Dirty Dancing.'”
The studio is almost done filming the musical in North Carolina and will finish but may not begin any new projects in the Tar Heel state.
“We will be hard pressed to continue our relationship with North Carolina if this regressive law remains on the books,†the letter reads, according to the Observer.
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