Hollywood veteran Steven Paul was among a raft of L.A. and international cinema execs in Qatar this weekend for a high-level industry event laying out the Gulf state’s ambitions to become a key film and TV hub in the region.
Talking at a masterclass on his storied career, the founder and CEO of L.A.-based SP Media Group said he was in talks with Qatar’s Film Committee over potential collaborations, but no concrete deals have been struck for today.
Paul’s trip to Qatar came just months after he banger the headlines in May as one of the architects of Jon Voigt’s “Make Hollywood Great Again” memo, laying out proposals to President Donald Trump on how to bring film and TV production back to L.A.
Alongside introducing tax incentives and breaks, the memo suggested tariffs for U.S. productions shot outside of the country of 120% of the worth of the incentive received.
A day after he received the memo, Trump posted he was looking into “a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands”, sending a chill through the U.S. and international film worlds on the eve of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
In his Qatar masterclass, Paul recounted how he had been involved in the process of writing the memo as a special advisor to Voigt, who was appointed Special Ambassador to Hollywood by Trump in January 2025.
The list of proposals had been drawn up, he said, after extensive canvassing of the streamers, studios and guilds.
“We gave the whole list to the president, we were sitting there in Mar-a-Lago and one of the things that he liked at the very, very, very bottom, like 20 pages in, was the word tariff,” he said.
Trump went quiet on the film tariff idea after his post in May, but he repeated the threat in September, declaring the U.S. film industry had been “stolen” by other countries.
Paul suggested he did not think it would come to pass.
“We will see,” said Paul in Doha. “I think it’s very difficult to tariff the entertainment business, and I don’t think it would be good if there were tariffs on the entertainment business.
“I am hopeful that we won’t be going down that path, but we will introduce coproductions and tax credits and all of that, because I also don’t want us only filming in the United States. I want there to be treaties so that we can do things like I’m saying between Doha and America.”
In a personal move to keep production to L.A., Paul introduced a new scheme in November at the Van Nuys-based Avenue Six Studios, which are owned by the SP Media Group, offering production financing to support movie and TV projects shot on its soundstages or utilize its services.
Paul said he would love to strike a coproduction discount with Qatar’s Film Committee, which would involve some of the joint productions being shot at the Avenue Six Studios.
The exec was speaking on the final day of an Industry Days event taking place during the Doha Film Festival and organized by Qatar’s Film Committee in partnership with the Doha Film Institute.
The Film Committee, which falls under the remit of Media City Qatar, was created in 2022 with a mission to grow the gulf state as a film and TV hub.
Headed by Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw the organization of the Qatar World Cup, the body has been working under the radar until today.
The Industry Days saw it lift the lid on its activities with a series of high-profile announcements including an incentive, partnerships with Neon, Department M, Miramax, Sony and Company 3 as well as the shoot of Barbara Broccoli’s first post-James Bond production Othello in Qatar with David Oyelowo directing and starring alongside Rachel Brosnahan and Cynthia Erivo.
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