At Sony Production studios in Culver City, an area of Los Angeles steeped in the movie business, a steady stream of cars and lorries comes and goes through the security gate.

It occupies the MGM lot which dates back to 1924. Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane were shot here and, more recently, Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises. But this is no longer the beating heart of movie making.

In Tinsel Town the bright lights of the film industry have been fading for some time. Production in Hollywood has fallen by 40% in the last decade, sometimes moving to other states like New Mexico, New York and Georgia, but more often outside the US entirely.

Ask Martha a question about this story

A recent survey of film and TV executives indicates that Britain, Australia and Canada are now favoured locations over California when it comes to making movies.

San Andreas, a blockbuster film about a California earthquake, was shot in Australia. In America, a film about an Irish family settling in New York, was shot in Canada.

Trump’s movie tariff could deal knock-out blow to UK film industry, union says

The exodus of the film industry from Hollywood is mostly owing to economic reasons, with other countries boasting lower labour costs and more expansive tax incentives. But as productions have moved overseas, studios across Los Angeles are frequently empty and those who work behind the scenes are often out of work.

President Trump has approached this problem with a familiar reaction – sweeping tariffs, a 100% tariff on all foreign made films coming into the USA.

‘It’s a different kind of situation than producing cars overseas’

Justine Bateman is a filmmaker and sister of actor Jason Bateman. She is glad Trump is looking for solutions but does not understand how the tariffs will work. “I will say, I’m very glad to hear that President Trump is interested in helping the film business. But part of the problem is we just don’t have very much detail, do we?” she says.

“He’s made this big announcement, but we don’t have the detail to really mull over. He doesn’t even say whether it’s going to be films that are shown in the cinema or streaming movies, for example.

“Tariffs can be a profitable situation for when we’re just talking about hard goods, but something like a film and, particularly if you’ve got an American film that takes place in the south of France, you want to be in a particular location.

“So it’s a different kind of situation than producing cars overseas and bringing them back here.”

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

At the Hand Prop Room in Los Angeles, they supply props for TV and film. The warehouse is brimful of virtually any prop you could imagine, from portraits of former presidents, to replica handguns to African artefacts and 18th century teapots. The walls are decorated with posters from some of the productions they’ve supplied, including Babylon, Oppenheimer and Ghostbusters.

‘It needs to be thought through’

In the past five years, the prop shop has been impacted by the COVID pandemic, by both the writers’ and actors’ strikes and the globalisation of the film industry. Business is at an all time low.

“It’s not helping when so many productions are not just leaving the state, but also leaving the country,” says Reynaldo Castillo, the general manager of the Hand Prop Room. “It’s Hollywood, we have the infrastructure that nobody else has and I think maybe to a certain point we took it for granted.

“I think we can all agree that we want more filming to stay in the country to help promote jobs. But you also don’t want to do something to hurt it.

“How does it work? Are there exceptions for X, Y, and Z? What about independent movies that have small budgets that are shot somewhere else that would destroy their ability to make something? It needs to be thought through and make sure it’s implemented the right way.”

Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society, is kicking off a search for its next chairman, months after it completed the biggest takeover deal in its 142-year history.

Sky News has learnt that Nationwide is working with headhunters to identify a successor to Kevin Parry, who has chaired the mutual since 2022.

Mr Parry has been on the building society’s board since 2016, meaning he is ‘timed out’ under the corporate governance guidelines applied to listed companies.

Although owned by its 16m members rather than listed on the public markets, Nationwide adheres to comparable governance principles.

One of Britain’s biggest high street financial services groups, it employs more than 18,000 people and has more than 600 branches across the UK.

In September, it completed the £2.3bn acquisition of Virgin Money, the London-listed banking group.

Last year, it sparked fury among its high street banking rivals by running a provocative television advertising campaign which mocked them for their approach to serving customers.

One of the ads was banned for wrongly implying that – unlike its peers – Nationwide was not closing any of its branches.

Mr Parry, who is also a former chair of the mutual Royal London, is not expected to leave imminently, although it is possible that a succession plan could be confirmed at or before Nationwide’s next annual meeting in July.

It was unclear whether any of the mutual’s existing non-executive directors might be in the frame to succeed him.

Nationwide declined to comment on Monday.

The new owner of WH Smith’s high street chain has effectively been barred from launching a wave of mass store closures for at least 12 months amid plans for rapid restructurings at two other retailers it owns.

Sky News has learnt that WH Smith would have the right to cancel a year-long transitional services agreement (TSA) put in place with Modella Capital – which struck a deal to acquire the business in March – if it launched a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) before the first anniversary of the transaction’s completion.

The clause in the TSA, which enables Modella Capital to continue using WH Smith’s systems after it takes ownership, is significant, according to retail insiders.

WH Smith agreed to sell its 480 high street shops to Modella in a £76m deal, ending 233 years of high street history.

Modella plans to rebrand the chain under the name TG Jones after it takes control.

In recent weeks, Sky News has revealed plans drawn up by Modella to launch CVAs at both Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop, which it has owned for nine and three months respectively.

Both of those restructuring processes have put significant numbers of stores at risk, and industry executives say that, over time, a sizeable part of the WH Smith high street estate could also be at risk.

A spokesman for Modella said: “We have a number of exciting plans for the future of TGJones.

“A CVA is not on the agenda, as it is a solvent business.”

WH Smith, which will become a pure-play travel retailer once the Modella deal completes, declined to comment further ahead of the completion of the sale.