Film production relocates to NC, citing abortion ban in Arkansas

Citing a near-total ban on all abortions in Arkansas following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a movie originally set to film in Arkansas is instead moving production to North Carolina, where abortion is still legal with some restrictions.

News of the film, “Eric Larue,” moving states because of the abortion ban was reported Tuesday by entertainment news site Deadline.

The movie was supposed to begin filming in Little Rock, Arkansas, this week, but producer Sarah Green sent communication to the state’s film commissioner Tuesday that the film would be relocating to Wilmington, North Carolina, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The news comes on the heels of last year’s record-breaking performance for the film industry in North Carolina, and marks a stark contrast to the role North Carolina’s laws and policies on social issues have played in the state’s ability to attract productions — or not — in recent years.

The News & Observer on Friday contacted the N.C. Film Office for comment and to confirm that “Eric Larue” will move production to North Carolina, but has not heard back.

Arkansas’ abortion law vs. North Carolina’s

The Supreme Court’s decision last month triggered Arkansas’ Act 180 of 2019, which “bans abortion in all cases except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency,” Axios reported.

The Arkansas law targets doctors who perform abortions — not patients who receive them — by making the act a felony that carries a fine of up to $100,000 or 10 years in prison, or both. The law does not provide exceptions for rape or incest.

In North Carolina, abortion remains legal following the Supreme Court’s decision, though a state law that has been blocked in court could ban the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and there are other restrictions in place, such as a required three-day waiting period before someone can receive the procedure.

More restrictions could be possible in the future, depending on whether more Republicans are elected to the General Assembly and are able to successfully override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto on any anti-abortion legislation.

But for now, North Carolina’s abortion laws are less restrictive than most of the states surrounding it, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group that tracks abortion laws around the country.

At least for the producers of “Eric Larue,” North Carolina’s less-restrictive abortion laws appeared to make the state more attractive for filming compared to its more restrictive counterparts.

The decision isn’t the first time productions have cited state policies on abortion in deciding where to film or produce their projects. In 2019, several major production companies, including Netflix and Disney, threatened to pull productions from Georgia after the state passed a controversial “heartbeat law” that banned abortion after a fetal heartbeat could be detected.

NC previously lost productions due to HB2

Other social issues and laws have also influenced productions’ decisions on where to film in recent years — and North Carolina has notably been on the losing end of some of those decisions.

After several blockbuster years for the state’s TV and film industry in the 2000s and early 2010s, the scaling back of the state’s film incentive program by state legislators in 2015 led to a dramatic drop in interest from production companies to film here.

Then, in 2016, the state passed House Bill 2, also called “the bathroom bill,” which required people to use public restrooms corresponding to their sex assigned at birth, rather than their gender.

Several production companies, including Lionsgate, A&E and 21st Century Fox, announced they would either pull projects from the state or not consider the state for future projects due to the controversial legislation.

The law was repealed through a compromise bill in 2017, and major production companies, including Lionsgate, have since returned for filming in the state. Netflix, which chose in 2019 to film the now-hit show “Outer Banks,” which is set in North Carolina, in neighboring South Carolina, due to “remnants” of HB2, has also returned to the state.

Funding for the state’s film incentive program, which offers a 25% rebate on in-state spending by productions, is today set at $31 million, and is generally more stable and reliable than the original scaled-back program launched in 2015, thanks to the funds being recurring and rolling over from year to year.

Changes to the incentive program included in the state budget last year lowered the minimum spending requirement for most productions, while raising the maximum payout for series, which could expand the pool of productions that consider North Carolina for filming, The N&O previously reported.

Now, the decision to film “Eric Larue” in North Carolina — which largely places the state in the opposite position it was in with HB2, attracting films instead of losing them — comes after a record-breaking performance for the state’s film industry in 2021.

The industry recorded its most successful year to-date last year, with productions spending an estimated $416 million in the state. That eclipsed the industry’s previous record, set in 2012, when “Iron Man 3” and other productions invested $373 million in the state — though, with inflation, both totals are roughly equal.

‘Eric Larue’ will mark Michael Shannon’s directorial debut

Deadline has reported that “Eric Larue” will be a screen adaptation of the stage play of the same name, which premiered in 2002 and follows the mother of a 17-year-old who shot and killed three of his high school classmates.

Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon is set to make his directorial debut with the film.

“As Janice faces a meeting of the mothers of the other boys, and a long-delayed visit to her son in prison, the story becomes not about the violence but about what we choose to think and do in order to survive trauma,” Deadline’s description of the project reads.

Playwright Brett Neveu created the play in response to the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, and he adapted it into the upcoming feature film after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Deadline reports.

This won’t be Shannon’s first time filming in North Carolina. He recently wrapped production on “George and Tammy,” a TV series about George Jones and Tammy Wynette that filmed in Wilmington late last year. Shannon plays Jones in the series, which will premiere on Spectrum and move to Paramount+ streaming and Paramount Network. A release date for the series has not yet been announced.