So, picture this: You’re an independent filmmaker struggling to make a hit movie. After an extensive review of your film’s script, that film gets approved for a grant from a freshly-approved government program designed to encourage producers to make films in the state (in this case, it’s Texas) instead of going elsewhere (like California or New York, or even outside the US). You had contemplated making the film somewhere else, but with the grant money, you can make a far better film in Texas. So you do, and up the budget to reflect the grant money you have coming in.
Meanwhile, after your film has been released and the bills are starting to become due, someone else takes over the agency in charge of the grant. Only then are you informed your movie doesn’t qualify for the grant after all, because the final product was “inappropriate.” You are left “holding the bag” to the tune of $8 million.
As the Houston Chronicle recently reported, this is pretty much what happened to Austin-based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez of Troublemaker Studios. The film is Machete, and it didn’t sit well with some people, particularly anti-immigration groups. The program is the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, administered by the Texas Film Commission.
(Working backwards from the info on that site, if Robert’s in the hole for $8 million for a grant that never came, that would imply either in the neighborhood of $53 million of eligible spending in Texas, or in the neighborhood of $32 million in wages paid to Texas residents. This is a huge benefit for the economy of the state of Texas either way.)
I have yet to see the movie myself. However, I believe strongly that keeping one’s word is a Texan value, and that reneging on a deal, especially when millions of dollars are at stake, is decidedly un-Texan. I’m not happy at all that my state’s government has decided to throw Robert Rodriguez under the bus. A deal is a deal, and there was plenty of opportunity to treat Robert fairly and tell him to go to, say, New Mexico or Arizona to make the film there instead.
I’m also really disturbed about the use of the word “inappropriate.” This word means a lot of different things to different people. If I deleted every blog post that someone, somewhere, found inappropriate, I’m certain I’d have an empty blog. The time to decide Robert’s movie was inappropriate in the context of a government grant was at the time the script was first reviewed, not after the movie was made and released. It’s completely unfair to an artist to promise money and then not deliver.
While I’ll be sad if Robert decides to make his movies elsewhere going forward, I can’t say I’ll blame him if he does. I just hope the next filmmaker who takes the state up on their offer doesn’t have the same problem.