Texas Film Commission Denies Tax Incentives To Machete For Negative Image Portrayal

The Texas Film Commission has denied a tax incentive to director Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios for their production of Machete, the Mexploitation film set in that state which was shot in Austin in the summer of 2009. The letter cited part of the code that says incentives can be denied to films "because of inappropriate content or content that portrays Texans or Texas in a negative fashion." Well, by those rules, we should be docking Governor Rick Perry's entire salary.

This is especially awkward because Perry actually signed into effect the legislation that beefed up filmmaking incentives in Texas in April of 2009 at Rodriguez’s studios. At the time, RoRo told the press that, without the bill, he would have had to move the production of projects, including Machete, to another state. Talk about a double cross!

Apparently in May of 2009, the Texas Film Commission raised the ire of filmmakers everywhere when they told the producers of a film called Waco, about the Branch Davidian debacle of 1993, that their film would not qualify for incentives because it was "historically inaccurate." (So John Wayne's The Alamo wouldn't have gotten a penny, right?) Not surprisingly, industry insiders are beginning to think the Texas Film Commission are the censorship police. Just what this state needs for its image.

Austin screenwriter and author Si Dun, who was a paid extra in Machete, told the Austin American-Statesmen on Wednesday, “The notion that state legislators somehow can protect Texas’ image from ‘negative light’ is just laughable — and sadly naive. Movies casting some aspect of Texas in a ‘negative light’ can be made with help from state incentives in Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma or almost any other state and then be shown in Texas theaters.”

Troublemaker stood to get back an estimated $1.75 million for their production. Kiss that money goodbye, RoRo

Source: Austin American-Statesmen