If they want to use the expense they made on the (apparently) failed film to reduce their tax burden, they can trade that multimillion reduction in their tax fo

If they want to use the expense they made on the (apparently) failed film to reduce their tax burden, they can trade that multimillion reduction in their tax for the (according to them) worthless materials they did end up with. If those materials have worth, then they shouldn't be writing them off in the first place while also sitting on them. If they don't have worth, it shouldn't be a problem. Except in some zero-sum type thing where they'd rather destroy it then let anyone else benefit, and then there's a question of if society at large should be footing the bill for the destruction of value in order to stymie competitors. Now, clearly, that's not how the rules actually currently work or we wouldn't be in here at all.