Two For Texas: McConaughey and Harrelson Take On Hollywood Production

Although the reports of Hollywood’s demise may be greatly exaggerated, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, and Renee Zellweger, all sons and daughter of the Lone Star State, are doing their damnedest to drive a stake through Hollywood’s heart.

The four perform in a four-minute, high-production quality video titled “True to Texas.”

The unambiguous intention is to (a) make it clear what a bad place California is to make movies (e.g., “restrictions, regulations, nickel and diming productions, political lectures. . .”) and (b) why this is the opportunity for Texas to take the proverbial reins of production.

The Texas legislature is considering a budget that includes $498 million for the Texas Film Incentive.

The actors want it to pass.

The Texas Film Incentive is part of Texas Senate Bill 1, introduced on January 22. The legislators have until June 2 to pass the budget. However, on January 29, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced his list of “25 priority bills” and SB1 is at the top of the list.

The local NBC affiliate in Dallas-Ft. Worth quotes Patrick saying of the priority bills: “These bills represent the will of the conservative majority of Texans, and many will pass with bipartisan support.”

It doesn’t take a Nate Silver to calculate that it is unlikely that the top priority will fail.

As McConaughey, in character as Rust Cohle from True Detective  with Harrelson playing his partner Marty Hart, as the two are in a cop-shop Ford Crown Vic with Dennis Quaid as a perp in the back seat, says in a way that might make you think he’s channeling Texas governor Greg Abbott or attorney general Ken Paxon: “So what do you say, Texas legislature? You don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishin’. Let’s take over the kitchen.”

Although McConaughey, who has feigned at running for political office, hasn’t been forthcoming about his political affiliation, his lines make him sound like he aligns with a certain guest star of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Quaid is the most convincing in his character: if he’s wearing makeup it is the inviso-type because his visage is wrinkled and well-worn; his unrestrained drawl about the splendors of Texas makes you think that if you didn’t agree with him he’d beat the hell out of you, cuffed or not.

Thornton’s and Zellweger’s appearances are somewhat curious, perhaps thrown in to spread the demographic appeal among the legislators.

Thornton appears to be near the set of Taylor Sheridan’s Landsman, set in west Texas. He talks about the gusher of money that’s now available to production companies and throws in a gratuitous line about barbecue. Forget about the kale and quinoa—there’s some good, greasy eats in Texas.

As for Zellweger, she’s wearing a burnt orange University of Texas Longhorns football ballcap and complaining about the need to travel to various hotels as production companies chase incentives state to state. Harrelson later points out that Texas is larger than many countries (it really is: bigger than Germany, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, to name a few) and Quaid articulates the various locales (“We got deserts, oceans, forests, rolling hills. . .is there anything we don’t have?”).

They make it seem so obvious one wonders why the Warner Brothers went all the way from Pennsylvania to California when they could have stopped halfway there in Texas.

In October California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed increasing the state’s film and TV tax credit program to $750 million per year, which would be a $420 million increase over what it is currently.

Of course, there were those massive fires in January which undoubtedly are rewriting the state’s budgetary spending in real time.

Vying for film spending is big business in states across the U.S.

Georgia is offering a 20% transferable tax credit on expenditures and more. Louisiana (where the “True Detective” series that McConaughey and Harrelson made primarily filmed) ups that to a 30% transferable tax credit. New Mexico offers a 25% refundable tax credit. And in all cases—and there are many more states that are ponying up the credits—there are additional sweeteners.

Hollywood is in trouble. In mid-January FilmLA released its figures for 2024. The number of shoot days in Greater Los Angeles was down 5.6 percent compared to 2023.

And to really put an edge on that knife, the organization admits, “That made 2024 the second least productive year observed by FilmLA; only 2020, disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, saw lower levels of filming in area communities.”

FilmLA cites “runaway production, industry contraction and slower-than-hoped-for post-strike recovery.”

Note that it doesn’t point out that there are a whole lot of other locales vying for those shoot days.

During the massive fires last month there was concern about how the fires would disrupt work on movies.

Turns out only two movies were filming in LA and temporarily paused, The Hands That Rocks the Cradle and the third Avatar movie.

Two.

That’s not the stuff of a vibrant industry. That’s a sign of decline.