A new video featuring iconic actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson reprising their roles from “True Detective” urges Texas lawmakers to incentivize film production in the “Lone Star State.”
McConaughey shared the video Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “Texas stories deserve a Texas backdrop. That’s why I teamed up with Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Renée Zellweger for True to Texas. It’s time to bring film and TV productions home!”
“Hollywood is a flat circle, Woody,” McConaughey said in the promotional video. “This industry is like somebody’s memory of an industry. I’m talking about a whole new hub for film and television. A renaissance. A rebirth.”
The iconic actors slammed Hollywood as being full of “restrictions and regulations” and explained that the current film industry is “nickel and diming productions.”
“Hollywood is a flat circle — round and round, like a record with the sound off,” McConaughey said. The “Rustin Cohle” actor added that he wants to “change the tune” of Hollywood by giving the movie production industry a “rebirth” in Texas.
Harrelson also offered his support for Texas incentivizing movie production in Wednesday’s video, saying, “A small fraction of Texas’ budget surplus can turn this state into the new Hollywood.”
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Zellweger added, “If all these other states are going to offer incentives, then that’s where we’re going to keep going. I just wish we could bring some of these productions home to Texas.”
Later in the video, the actors explained that Texas lawmakers have proposed a budget to incentivize movie production in the state and noted that the money would not just be “corporate welfare for big Hollywood studios” but would instead be an investment in “real Texas business owners and citizens.”
In a recent press release, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-Texas) noted that a budget filed by the Texas State Senate included $489 million to “revamp the Texas Film Incentive” and make the state “the movie capital of the world.”
In the promotional video, McConaughey said, “You see, every dollar spent from this incentive puts $4 back in the state of Texas.”
“It’s time for Texas to become the home for telling stories that people want to see and hear,” McConaughey concluded at the end of the video. “So what do you say, Texas legislature? You don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing? Let’s take over the kitchen.”
