Jon Voight, Steven Paul, Donald Trump and Scott Karol during a visit to Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. Steven Paul Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The Westwood offices of filmmaker and manager Steven Paul are crowded with mementos of an idiosyncratic journey in the business. On one wall, there is a framed 1971 New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece that profiles Paul as a 12-year-old actor in a Kurt Vonnegut play and an adolescent playwright himself. On another is a Hollywood Reporter story published nine years later about Paul debuting his first major film, Falling in Love Again, starring a young Michelle Pfeiffer. On a coffee table shelf sit stacks of vintage Atlas Comics, the predecessor label to Marvel that Paul bought a majority stake in a few years ago, to the delight of nostalgic comic book bloggers. Related Stories Business 5,000 Podcasts. 3,000 Episodes a Week. $1 Cost Per Episode -- Behind an AI Start Up's Plan Business Succession War Over, Lachlan Murdoch Turns to Next Era of Empire Building Paul's latest chapter may soon be worthy of its own keepsake. Ever since President Trump named Paul's client Jon Voight one of three "special ambassadors" to Hollywood in January, alongside fellow 20th century A-listers Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, Paul's mindset has broadened from Santa Monica Boulevard to Pennsylvania Avenue. As Voight's longtime manager and business partner, Paul, perhaps best known as one of the minds behind the 1999 comedy Baby Geniuses, has become an unlikely go-between for Hollywood and the White House. While Stallone and Gibson have been relatively quiet about their presidential appointments, Voight and Paul have jumped into action, energetically embracing the president's all-caps mandate to bring Hollywood back "BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!" The pair, along with the president of Paul's SP Media Group, Scott Karol, have zeroed in on the flight of production from the U.S. to locales with more attractive tax incentives. "It's gotten worse and worse and worse," says Paul at his office, located in a building he owns. Downstairs is a cozy coffee shop, Hank's Cafe, pouring brews from L.A.-area staple Urth Caffé and featuring pictures of Paul's father (the titular Hank) and other Paul associates, like a clothing designer for Baby Geniuses. "You see people leaving [and] have friends that are leaving town. They just can't afford it, they've taken other jobs." This kind of advocacy can sound a little strange coming from a producer whose company has recently produced quite a few nearly star-free action projects in Bulgaria, which offers a 25 percent rebate on production expenses. Still, Paul, Voight and Karol have surprised some leaders in Hollywood with their close attention to the industry's concerns in their new roles. After meeting with several industry organizations this year, Paul, Voight and Karol presented a meaty array of ideas - from infrastructure subsidies for theater owners to tax code changes - to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The President seized on one suggestion, tariffs, and posted on Truth Social about applying them to projects produced abroad before the White House walked that back. The Voight group also highlighted industry appetite for a federal film tax incentive that could be combined with individual states' tax credits. It's an old notion, one that a couple of unions began lobbying for before Trump 2.0, but has gained renewed momentum in an era of America First policy. Industry groups and Voight's team pushed to include the incentive in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," but that effort failed. Now, Hollywood has pinned its hopes on bipartisan legislation to establish the incentive. Though no federal bill has been announced, top industry organizations are having "continued discussions," Paul says. "We are not stopping until hopefully we accomplish this mission that we have been on." Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Laura Friedman, both Democrats, are involved in the effort. But the push also has support from the other side of the aisle, according to Karol, who says that further details will be announced at the "appropriate time." Still, it's an open question how much the Trump team - and, by extension, the GOP lawmakers that so carefully toe its line - is invested in supporting the film and TV business. Schiff has been working on federal film tax legislation for some time, but he may be a less-than-ideal spokesperson given his role as a Democrat punching bag for Trump (most recently, the president accused him of mortgage fraud). On a broader level, given Hollywood's reputation as a bastion for bleeding-heart liberals, is this notion of revitalizing the business a passing fancy? A ploy to gain leverage in order to influence the industry's storytelling? The president's interest in helping Hollywo