Texas Gov. Perry Signs $22M Film Incentive Bill

The Texas Film Commission is aware of 32 film projects in the last four years that researched Texas for their production location but instead chose other states that offer film incentives. Twelve of those projects had storylines set in Texas, but chose other locations such as New Mexico, Louisiana and Canada.

The loss of those projects cost Texas an estimated $327 million in project spending and forty-six hundred jobs.

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About 40 states have film industry incentives, and most block funding for films deemed obscene, but the broad language of the Texas law has raised First Amendment concerns for the Motion Picture Association of America. "It has serious constitutional overtones," Vans Stevenson, senior vice president for state government affairs, said.

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Before the Texas bill was signed earlier this month on an Austin sound stage, the MPAA urged Gov. Rick Perry in a letter to veto the legislation.... But Stevenson warns that the caveat will backfire and hurt the Texas' effort to woo back film business it has been losing to other states, which have passed more generous tax credit and incentive programs.

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In the past, the state had relied on its popularity with directors like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater and Ron Howard, while touting its professional film industry labor force, a growing number of sound stages and its geographic diversity. But in the last four years, 32 film projects — including Ghost Rider starring Nicolas Cage and Billy Bob Thornton's The Astronaut Farmer — that had initially expressed interest ended up choosing other locations. Adding insult to injury — an estimated $327 million in spending and 4,600 jobs — 12 of the films had Texas story lines, according to the state's film commisison.

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With the legislature meeting only for a few months every two years, passing an incentive package this spring was considered vital. But supporters didn't take into account the lingering resentment of the movie Glory Road, the inspirational tale of the Texas Western Miners, the first all-black college basketball team to win a national championship. In one of the movie's game scenes, the Miners played East Texas University, now Texas A&M-Commerce, and Aggies were enraged at their depiction as racist. While the Miners were derided and experienced racism during their rise to glory, the depiction of Aggie fans as racist was historically inaccurate, critics said; Hudgins said the movie used poetic license in the scene to symbolize several real incidents. With Aggie sensibilities so offended, state senate finance committee chairman Steve Ogden, a Republican whose district includes Texas A&M University, plugged in the conditions clause and no amount of lobbying by a mobilized Texas film industry could dislodge it.

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NCsoft is just one of the 80 game developers in Texas, which is the third biggest game development center in the country, behind only California and Washington. "There is an intersection between the film industry and the game industry. Especially in animation there is a huge crossover in the workforce," said Katy Daiger, the film commission's liaison to the game design industry. In terms of economic development, Garriott said, the game design industry has a greater impact than film and it boasts a workforce that any city would want to attract — permanent, creative, well-educated and high earning.

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