Not to drop names, but some of the biggest names you can drop in Hollywood, like Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson and others, are pushing for bi-partisan legislation that would make Texas as appealing to movie-makers as it has become for people like Elon Musk and financial giants like Oracle and Goldman Sachs. The lucrative benefits Texas offered in days of lore were whittled away by budget cuts through the years, but Dennis Quaid joins those proposing Texas become the movie making capital of the world.
There is a studio in Los Angeles owned by Alton Butler called “Line 204 Studios” with multiple sound stages and full compliment facilities for every kind of shooting creative people can imagine.
Check them out here.
Alton Butler has bought 546 acres in Bastrop with the plan of building a massive complex for movie making. For those Hollywood types who have had it with California taxes, drugs and mayhem, Bastrop Mayor Connie Schroeder says Texas, Bastrop specifically, has a lot to offer. A 20 minute drive from an international airport, she says if you turn right you can get into downtown Bastrop faster than you can than if you turn left and go to Austin. If you draw the triangle between Austin, San Antonio and Houston, Bastrop is in the heart. And much like that 1992 Brad Pitt movie, a river runs through it, with a state park half a mile away. The Colorado River is the outer boundary of the property Alton Butler bought.
Movie making is green screens and digital. Texas has the workforce to do that. Schroeder says on the property he can have soundstages to shoot indoors, and every kind of outdoor environment any cinematographer could envision. “In the natural topography he has, going down to the river he can make it seem like the 1800’s crossing a river or he can make it be a scene in the Middle East. We’re not that far from the hills, Lost Pines, historic homes downtown. On his property alone he can make it look like anywhere in the world, we’ve got neighborhoods that look like modern subdivisions and neighborhoods that are historically classic so you have a lot of opportunity, as opposed to being in downtown L.A., where it looks like downtown L.A.”
The largest green screen in the state is at Spider Woods studio, located on FM 969, which is 12 miles away. Elon Musk’s Space X and Boring Company are in Bastrop, so the amount of technical skills required for modern movie making is there.
There’s plenty of places to shoot all over the state. Austin, vast plains of North Texas, the western part of the state.
It would be worth the legislature’s while to return Texas benefits for moviemakers to compete with Georgia, New Mexico, the Carolinas. We have so much more to offer.
photo: Getty Images