{"id":45425,"date":"2025-07-17T14:58:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=45425"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:58:28","slug":"texas-could-become-a-movie-making-power-house-but-is-that-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/07\/texas-could-become-a-movie-making-power-house-but-is-that-a-good-thing.html","title":{"rendered":"Texas Could Become a Movie-Making Power House, But is That a Good Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_45428\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45428\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/07\/True-to-Texas_credit-True-to-Texas-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45428\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/07\/True-to-Texas_credit-True-to-Texas-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-45428\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">True to Texas \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On June 23, Texas governor Greg Abbot allowed the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund to pass into law. The fund allocates $1 billion to the Texas film industry. The state will provide the fund with $300 million every two years for the next 10 years. The bill goes into effect September 1 and will provide cash grants to certain projects filmed in the states. To receive the funds, film and television projects must meet certain requirements: 55% of paid crew and 55% of paid cast members, including extras, must be Texas residents, and 60% of the total production must be completed in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>The law comes after influential Texans such as Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as well as Dennis Quaid, Ren\u00e9e Zellweger, and Billy Bob Thornton pushed for the state to do more to draw in more media companies. McConaughey implored Texas Senate Committee on Finance in March to do more. \u201c[We need] painters, special effects, transportation, accountants, bookkeepers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were losing Texas stories to New Mexico, Louisiana and Georgia,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/news\/texas-increases-film-incentive-1236437140\/\">said<\/a> Chase Musslewhite, co-founder of the advocacy group Media for Texas. \u201cWe want to shoot them in Texas.\u201d The show <em>Fear the Walking Dead <\/em>left filming in Texas for Georgia in search of more money.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Sheridan, producer of the popular <em>Yellowstone<\/em> has filmed several projects in Texas, including the popular <em>Landman<\/em> and <em>1883, <\/em>was also a key voice for the bill. He called state subsidies \u201cnecessary.\u201d \u201cIt is a necessary implementation of our business. The model that these networks and these studios operates by now mandates that you have one. They cannot and will not finance a film without an incentive from a state. They will not do it,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/news\/texas-increases-film-incentive-1236437140\/\">he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone, however, is thrilled about the idea of more Hollywood in Texas. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility criticized the bill. \u201cThe bill undermines core principles of limited government, creates a large, recurring carve-out from essential state revenues, and prioritizes corporate welfare for Hollywood-style projects over pressing taxpayer needs like tax relief,\u201d it <a href=\"https:\/\/texastaxpayers.com\/dont-hollywood-my-texas-why-legislators-should-reject-giving-2-5-billion-of-taxpayer-money-to-hollywood\/\">declared<\/a>. Sen. Paul Bettencourt pushed back against the bill in March, stating such projects did not promote Texas values. \u201cWhen you look at \u2018Landman\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s completely wrong,\u201d said Sen. Paul Bettencourt, at the hearing in March. \u201cIt\u2019s not functionally correct. It doesn\u2019t explain what a landman does. Having Billy Bob Thornton f-bomb every other sentence is not Texas values. We do need to get a handle on this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 23, Texas governor Greg Abbot allowed the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund to pass into law. The fund allocates $1 billion to the Texas film industry. The state will provide the fund with $300 million every two years for the next 10 years. The bill goes into effect September 1 and will&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":45428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Texas Could Become a Movie-Making Power House, But is That a Good Thing?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas just passed a $1B film incentive fund to keep productions local\u2014but critics say it\u2019s a Hollywood handout that doesn\u2019t reflect values.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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