How Hollywood milks European governments, by RiShawn Biddle in the American Spectator:

To see how Hollywood has turned Germany’s — and Europe’s — crusade against so-called American cultural imperialism to Tinseltown’s Titanic advantage, check out The Punisher, the action film based on a Marvel Comics comic book about a vigilante antihero.

Featuring the raffish American John Travolta as an underworld crime boss and shot in sunny Tampa, Florida, it was co-produced by Gale Ann Hurd, the mastermind behind the Terminator trilogy and will be distributed by the Canadian-American Lions Gate Entertainment and Japanese giant Sony’s film division. Yet German taxpayers will foot part of the production costs for the film, which comes out this month, thanks to a film fund, a German government tax shelter originally set up to promote local filmmaking. . . .