Clint Eastwood Starts Filming New Movie This Summer In Atlanta

ATLANTA -- While lesser-known celebrities and Hollywood executives continue to protest or cancel productions because of Georgia's new abortion law, one of entertainment's biggest names is moving full-speed ahead with his latest movie. Clint Eastwood is set to start filming this summer his latest film, "Richard Jewell." The movie is about the security guard who was initially accused in a pipe-bombing that rocked Atlanta's 1996 Summer Olympics.

Jewell was eventually cleared by the FBI, but only after then-AJC reporter Kathy Scruggs reported that Jewell was a suspect. What followed was arguably the nation's first 24-hour media firestorm, with news choppers circling almost 24 hours a day over Jewell's Brookhaven apartment and news crews constantly camped outside his residence.

Jewell maintained his innocence throughout, and eventually became a police officer. However, he died a few years later, in 2007 due to heart failure.

Variety first reported that Paul Walter Hauser will portray Jewell in the Warner Bros. film, along with Sam Rockwell as Jewell’s attorney and Kathy Bates as Jewell’s mother. The film is based on Marie Brenner’s article in Vanity Fair chronicling Jewell's story. Eastwood is directing and producing through his Malpaso production banner.

Gov. Brian Kemp is seeking to calm Georgia's film industry in the face of growing Hollywood opposition to the state's newly signed abortion bill, which goes into effect next year. Georgia is one of the world's top locations for film and TV production, mostly due to tax breaks and other policies that Kemp's predecessor, Nathan Deal, endorsed.

However, two upcoming productions in Georgia are the state's first entertainment casualties as a result of the so-called Heartbeat Bill. Amazon's series "The Power" is the first TV production to leave Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Heartbeat Bill. Emmy-winning director Reed Morano is pulling the Amazon series from shooting in Georgia. Also, actress Kristin Wiig and her collaborator, Annie Mumolo, have canceled shoots in Georgia for their upcoming film "Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar."

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard also has said he would boycott Georgia if the bill goes into effect next year.

The bill, authored by a suburban Atlanta Republican lawmaker, outlaws most abortions after about six weeks, which is when a fetal heartbeat is usually first detected. It would allow abortions in cases where the mother's life or health is in danger, or in cases of medical emergency. It also says an unborn child at any stage of development in the womb would be included in state population-based counts.

In 2017, Georgia was the location for 15 of the year's 100 top-grossing films — good for second place behind Canada, where 20 such movies were produced. A year earlier, Georgia had topped the list with 17 of the year's most popular features, beating out the United Kingdom, Canada and California.

In 2005, Georgia's legislature passed what would become known as the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act. Under the bill, which went into effect in 2008, Georgia offered one of the nation's most aggressive tax-incentive programs to production companies working in the state.
As a result, TV and film studios were able to shave off significant sums from their overhead doing business in Georgia, as opposed to other states. Productions of $500,000 or more that take full advantage by including promotion for the state — usually in the form of the Georgia, USA peach logo – can save 30 percent on their taxes.

In the wake of the new law, Georgia's entertainment-industry infrastructure began to grow as studios, sound stages, post-production facilities and the like began springing up to support the companies arriving to take advantage of the tax break.