The tale we have seen in this series is one of creativity and strife. Texas at the turn of the century was becoming a Mecca for work in the film and entertainment industries. From Miss Congeniality to Sin City, Texas flourished. Filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater were showing Hollywood that Texas crews could do a better job than previously seen in California, plus be on time and under budget. That is, until other states began increasing their film incentives to give Hollywood a better bottom line than our fair state. Slowly, the entertainment jobs stopped coming. Productions went elsewhere to shoot. A sad situation involving Texas natives developed- our talent was being sent to other states to sub in for Texas, such as the debacle surrounding “Whip It!” the newest movie featuring Drew Barrymore as a Texas Roller Girl being filmed in Michigan?

As a result, agencies such as the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, the Texas Film Commission, the Dallas Film Commission, the Austin Film Society, and the American Film Institute came on board to help workers stranded by California, by organizing a massive Lobby Day in the Texas Capitol. Up ’til now, every interview we’ve had stressed the importance of Texas’ Film Incentives program. We even have more to come.

However, we would like to skip forward to the end of AFI Dallas for a moment, to break some fairly major news. During the “Texas Film Day” festivities last week, we gained an exclusive interview with the man viewed as being the last roadblock to a progressive Film Incentives Program, Governor Rick Perry.

Has Perry changed his mind? We certainly hope so. A lot of the news we have received in Austin surrounding this effort has been confusing, and we hope this clears it up. Over the next few days and months, we will see how important this issue is to almost every single filmmaker we talk to. This story just got huge- and you saw it here first!