{"id":245790,"date":"2026-04-12T02:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245790\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T02:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:35:12","slug":"hollywood-veteran-texas-state-leaders-make-pitch-to-become-major-film-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245790\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood veteran, Texas state leaders make pitch to become major film hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KETK<\/a>) \u2014 A Hollywood veteran and Texas leaders are making a direct pitch to bring more film and television production home, saying the Lone Star State has the talent, infrastructure and momentum to become a major player in the industry.<\/p>\n

Actor Dennis Quaid joined Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on stage at the Lone Star Legislative Summit in Nacogdoches on Friday, just one day after appearing at SFA\u2019s Nelso Rusche Distinguished Lecture Series.<\/p>\n

Rep. Moran backs John Cornyn for Senate, declaring race choice between \u2018character and corruption\u2019 <\/a><\/p>\n

The conversation focused on the rapid growth of film and television across Texas.<\/p>\n

Quaid pointed to the established production areas like the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, which generates millions of dollars for local economies and said the goal is to expand that success into places like East Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to really build an industry that\u2019s homegrown, where the crews come from here,\u201d Quaid said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always had great crews, but they have to go work in Louisiana or Oklahoma. Why should that be? You should be able to work right here and really grow an industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

State leaders made that vision more realistic after passing Senate Bill 22<\/a>, which is designed to strengthen Texas\u2019s film incentive program and attract more productions.<\/p>\n

The law allows the state to invest $300 million every two years into the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund through 2035.<\/a> It also expands incentives for productions that choose to film in-state, helping keep jobs and spending within Texas communities.<\/p>\n

Additional incentives encourage filming in rural or economically distressed areas and hiring Texas-based crews, potentially opening the door for more development in regions like East Texas.<\/p>\n

Supported by Texas-born actors such as Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and Dennis Quaid himself, momentum is steadily growing. Quaid mentioned that some of his most rewarding experiences in film have taken place in Texas, and he believes the state has the potential to become a new hub for the industry.<\/p>\n

You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24\/7 on your smart TV\u00a0with\u00a0KETK+<\/a>,\u00a0our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite needed\u2014watch for free, anytime.\u00a0Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KETK) \u2014 A Hollywood veteran and Texas leaders are making a direct pitch to bring more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1864,54130,2604,93606,93605,7209,60851,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-245790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-dan-patrick","9":"tag-dennis-quaid","10":"tag-east-texas","11":"tag-film-and-television","12":"tag-film-and-television-production","13":"tag-lone-star-state","14":"tag-nacogdoches","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-headlines","17":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}