Paramount has secured more than $37 million in California film tax credits to shoot projects including the Viola Davis thriller "Ascent" and a "Clueless" sequel series, at a time when the studio is locked in a dispute with California's attorney general over its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The award matters because Tennessee has been actively courting Paramount chief executive David Ellison to relocate production there, raising the stakes for Los Angeles, where filming activity is already near historic lows.

Paramount Television Studios and CBS Studios ranked second among recipients, behind Disney's $45 million for an untitled detective series, in a batch of incentives the California Film Commission announced on Monday. In total, nine productions spending over $498 million across 1,032 shoot days received $145.5 million in credits, with seven being new to the state; other beneficiaries included Universal Television ($26.8 million), Sony Pictures ($16.2 million), Amazon ($11.6 million) and Netflix ($1.2 million). Governor Gavin Newsom hailed the expanded tax credit programme as a driver of jobs and economic activity, while CBS Studios' David Stapf said the funding would support returning seasons of "Matlock" and "NCIS: Origins" alongside the new "Clueless" series in Los Angeles.