Will Smith will move production of big-budget, runaway slave thriller “Emancipation” out of Georgia in protest over the state’s controversial new voting restrictions, multiple sources report.
The announcement continues the economic fallout from Gov. Brian Kemp and the state legislature’s decision to pass new regulations that critics maintain amount to voter suppression, aimed at reducing the turnout of people of colour.
The new laws were passed in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and after Georgia voted for a Democrat for president for the first time in decades.
The rules shorten the duration of absentee voting, require absentee voters to produce identification, limit the use of drop boxes and make it a crime to hand out free food or water to voters standing in line.
It is the first film to pull out of the state since the new laws came into effect, but others could follow suit.
Director James Mangold, who will helm the new Indiana Jones movie, recently said he would not make any new movies in Georgia because of the new law.
