{"id":456559,"date":"2026-09-07T21:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/456559\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T21:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:18:14","slug":"whalefall-california-production-broken-down-by-films-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/456559\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Whalefall’ California Production Broken Down By Film’s Producers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a time when many film and television productions shoot in other states or countries despite having their roots of development in Hollywood, 20th Century Studios has taken a big swing with its upcoming feature Whalefall<\/a>, which arrives in theaters October 16.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarring Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd, the film adaptation of Daniel Kraus\u2019 book shot in a couple California locations \u2014 from Monterey to San Pedro \u2014 before finishing up at Radford Studios, where Deadline visited set during production last September.<\/p>\n

\n\tExecutive producer Doug Merrifield, whose credits stretch from 2023\u2019s Candy Cane Lane and The Shallows (2016) all the way back to associate producer on 1993\u2019s Free Willy, revealed that he compared schedules and budgets in both California and Louisiana as shooting locations side by side before production began.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn paper, Louisiana was a little cheaper \u2014 six figures cheaper, not seven figures cheaper \u2014 but at the end of the day, we were able to convince 20th Century that the best creative teams are here for this kind of picture,\u201d Merrifield told Deadline a little over a year ago. \u201cTo their credit, even though it was a little more expensive to make the movie in California, they agreed to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMerrifeld added that \u2014 at the end of the day \u2014should the film have shot in New Orleans, the cost comparison would have been a wash if not more expensive, once specialists were brought in.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: California Lawmakers Officially Carve Out Compromises For Film Industry On Corporate Tax Credit Cap<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had the ratio between the cost above the line, below the line, and then visual effects with Guillaume [Rocheron]. In California, you don\u2019t get an incentive on above the line, but we had enough in post and visual effects to offset the loss of what we didn\u2019t get from above the line,\u201d Merrifield continued.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe visual effects, set design and other \u201cspecialty skills\u201d in Merrifield\u2019s words were important in a story with a premise like Whalefall\u2019s, where Austin Abrams\u2019 character spends an hour in a whale\u2019s stomach after diving deep in the ocean looking for his father\u2019s (Josh Brolin) remains. Said whale stomach models were built by the W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop in New Zealand, but the head, throat, esophagus and larynx were constructed in California because they were too big to ship to set in time. The 12-foot-tall 18-foot-long whale head was manufactured by StudioArt & Technology.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s so unfortunately rare to have the opportunity to shoot here, that when people know that a movie\u2019s shooting in L.A., that is their first choice,\u201d said producer on the Imagine Entertainment<\/a> side of things, Allen Mendelbaum. \u201cThey can come home at night, see their families and everything. Why not? I think we\u2019re really punching above our weight in this movie, because the crew is as good as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: California Lawmakers Officially Secure $750M Annually For Film & TV Tax Credit Program With Final Budget Vote<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tFor 50 days \u2014 which later turned into 62 \u2014 of filming, with a cast of 11 and a crew of 180 plus 409 background players, the film received nearly $11 million in tax credits on $50M total qualified expenditures. For the crew members living in the valley, including director Brian Duffield, production at Radford Studios was a huge plus, especially with stacked stage levels for easy access when shifting between shooting environments like the tank that simulates the ocean Jay (Abrams) dives in and then the whale\u2019s head, throat and stomach, where he spends most of his time in the story.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe originally were looking at L.A. Center, which was sort of a split [geographically]. [Radford] made us a great deal. And the fact that we had all these four stages [during production.] The tank [was] on 17, we had all the [whale] stomachs on 16, and then we had our special lead throat, and the 360 rigs on 12 across the way,\u201d Merrifield said. \u201cWe were fortunate that it is at this time we were able to make such a good deal. But unfortunately, it is because it\u2019s so slow right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhalefall benefited from a $330 million round of funding that preceded the newly approved expansion<\/a> of the California Film & TV Tax Credit program, which included a total of $750 million<\/a> in incentive funding.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018The Pitt\u2019 S3, Kimmel EP\u2019d Game Show, \u2018High Potential\u2019 S3, & \u2018Stewie\u2019 Score California Tax Credits<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve seen, where it\u2019s started [to] already help the increase to television. For features. ultimately, if we want more feature work here, we\u2019re going to have to have some sort of ATL (above the line) incentive credit, which you don\u2019t get here right now. So if you have a big above the line, it doesn\u2019t make sense to shoot here,\u201d Merrifield who worked on the Free Willy films in Mexico City, shared.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith a smaller cast, Whalefall could make production in California work, but for other major projects with heavy-hitting stars attached, above-the-line costs are a different story.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThings take time to trickle down, but I think in a year, we\u2019ll have a much better idea how the new, increased incentive here has helped, not only television, but I\u2019m hoping, in features,\u201d Merrifield added.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Big Money! Jobs! Newsom Boasts Big Bucks Film\/TV Tax Credits \u201cDelivering Results\u201d; Eddie Murphy\u2019s \u2018Donkey,\u2019 Disney & Ben Affleck Flicks Get Incentives<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tCalifornia is currently in the middle of both film and television application cycles for the state\u2019s tax credit program. Applications close in September for feature films and independent productions, while the window for television series runs into October. Though production in California remains low, several other projects that have benefited from the California Film Commission\u2019s incentive will release this fall alongside Whalefall.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the anniversary of the program\u2019s funding rising to $750 million in July, projects like Ben Affleck\u2019s upcoming Gingerbread Men produced with Matt Damon and their Artists Equity banner as well as Disney\u2019s Hexed coming this fall were among 41 films that received $187 million in incentives<\/a> over the summer.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecent developments around efforts to shift production back to the heart of Hollywood have involved a 35% incentive for postproduction<\/a> to move to the Golden State. President Donald Trump has also voiced vague intentions<\/a> to back a federal film and tv tax credit as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast July, the California Film Commission allocated its $40 million<\/a> of funding since the increase went into play to Dan Fogelman ($20.8M) and Ryan Murphy ($17.9M) for their upcoming television projects. Mid-March 2026, The Pitt, High Potential and Season 2 of Bill Lawrence\u2019s Rooster comedy were among 14 small-screen projects to receive tax credits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: California Lawmakers Introduce Compromise For Film Industry On Corporate Tax Credit Cap<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tDecember 2024\u2019s round of distributed funding<\/a>, which totaled to $108.6 million awarded to 10 film and TV projects including Whalefall, also saw Season 2 of Bill Lawrence\u2019s Bad Monkey, which returns this December<\/a>, get part of that funding for 93 filming days in California with the production generating $82 million in qualified expenditures and employing 460 cast and crew members and 4,290 background performers.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhalefall joins such big studio projects shooting in Callifornia as the multi-Oscar winning Paul Thomas Anderson $140M feature production, One Battle After Another, Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Further Mis-adventures of Cliff Booth<\/a>\u00a0(which had $105.9M in qualified tax expenditures), as well as this year\u2019s<\/a> 13 Going on 30 reboot at Netflix<\/a> ($10.9M for $31.2M in qualified expenditures) and the It Follows (2014) sequel They Follow ( $7M for $20M in qualified expenditures).<\/p>\n

\n\tLast April, 38 features<\/a> were given California state credits. Back in October 2025, there were over 50 films approved for such tax incentives including Amazon MGM Studios\u2019\u00a0Heat 2\u00a0($104.1M in qualified expenditures) and the upcoming Jumanji: Open World\u00a0sequel ($161.5M in qualified expenditures).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Whalefall\u2019 Trailer: Austin Abrams Has An Hour Of Oxygen To Get Out Of A Sperm Whale\u2019s Stomach<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a time when many film and television productions shoot in other states or countries despite having their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[180135,7,9,8,180136,180137],"class_list":["post-456559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-20th-century-studios","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-imagine-entertainment","tag-whalefall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}