LOS ANGELES – Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith will move their production on their big budget, runaway slave thriller “Emancipation” from Georgia in protest of the state’s controversial new voting restrictions.
The announcement follows the economic consequences of government Brian Kemp, a Republican, and the decision of the GOP-controlled state legislature to enact new regulations that maintain critics, amounting to oppression of voters, aimed at the reduce emergence of coloreds. The new laws were passed following unsubstantiated allegations by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, and after Georgia voted for a Democratic president for the first time in decades.
The rules shorten the duration of the absence of votes, require absent voters to provide identification, restrict the use of subjects and make it a crime to distribute free food or water to voters standing in line.
“Right now, the nation is coming to terms with its history and trying to eradicate remnants of institutional racism in order to bring about true racial justice,” Fuqua, the film’s director, and Smith said in a joint statement. “We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enforces regressive voting laws designed to restrict voter access. The new laws in Georgia are reminiscent of the voting barriers adopted at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many “Americans can vote. Unfortunately, we feel compelled to move our film production work from Georgia to another state.”
‘Emancipation’, which was to start filming on June 21, plays Smith as Peter, a refugee from slavery who flees Louisiana in hopes of traveling north to freedom. Fuqua will direct from a screenplay by William N. Collage.
Fuqua Films and Smith’s media company Westbrook Inc. supports the film, which was sold to Apple Studios in a deal worth an estimated $ 120 million. It is unclear where the production will move and whether Smith and Fuqua’s decision will push other Hollywood actors to stop filming in Georgia. The Peach State has become a major production hub in recent years, as have Tyler Perry and Marvel who have staged major film and television recordings in Georgia because of its generous incentives.
Some media companies such as ViacomCBS and AT&T have criticized the restrictions, while others remain silent. The best talent was more pronounced. Filmmakers such as James Mangold and actors such as Mark Hamill have vowed to boycott film and television production in Georgia while introducing the new voting rights.
In the wake of the new voting restrictions, major corporations in Georgia such as Delta and Coca-Cola condemned the law and Major League Baseball decided to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, Mellody Hobson, chairman of Starbucks, Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, and Kenneth Chenault, former CEO of American Express, are urging top executives to public pressure campaign on the state over its legislation.
“Emancipation” is based on a true story. Smith’s character “Whipped Peter” was a slave who emancipated himself from a southern plantation and joined the Union Army. In 1863, during a medical examination of the army, photographs of Peter first appeared in Harper’s Weekly. One image, known as ‘The Scourged Back’, shows Peter’s bare back, cut by a whip he received on the plantation where he was a slave. This image perfectly captured the brutality of slavery and inspired free black people to join and fight for the Union.