Texas could become a film capital, Dennis Quaid said Friday as he and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick laid out a renewed push to turn the state into a production hub at the Lone Star Legislative Summit in Nacogdoches.
Quaid said the goal is simple: keep the work in Texas. “We should be able to work right here and really grow an industry,” he said, arguing that nearby states have already lured productions away with bigger incentives.
Patrick said the effort started with Senate Bill 22, which allocates $300 million into a Texas moving industry incentive fund every two years until 2035. He said the state’s aim is to build a stronger industry for faith-based and family productions, adding that “Texas will become the number one faith based, family film capital in the world because of these incentives.”
Quaid said Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico have pulled business away from Texas after offering film incentives, even though Texas once had a more active movie business. “We used to do a lot of movies in Texas, I’ve worked here a lot,” he said. “They lost all this business to these places that were incentivizing films.”
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Patrick pointed to The Chosen, saying the production has its primary studio in Midlothian, and said the state expects the industry to keep spreading into East Texas. “This year in East Texas they will spend 70 million dollars, hire over 1,000 people, and most of that is all the crew — it’s only a few actors,” he said.
The next phase is built around local hiring. Patrick said production companies will look to recruit crews from Texas schools, including graduates of programs at the University of Texas and Stephen F. Austin. He also said the state plans to offer “a bonus if they shoot in rural Texas, a bonus if they hire veterans.”
The pitch marks a more focused effort to make Texas competitive with states that have spent years using incentives to attract film work. The difference now is that Patrick says the state is not just trying to lure projects for a season — it is trying to build a lasting business around them.
