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Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson push to make Texas new Hollywood

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Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson push to make Texas new Hollywood


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Hollywood A-listers Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Renée Zellweger are hoping to make Texas “the new Hollywood.”

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The stars united for a new ad from the True to Texas initiative to encourage filmmakers to move productions to the state, and lobby state officials for financial incentives to make the move appealing.

McConaughey and Harrelson took inspiration from their “True Detective” characters in the clip, under the direction of the series director, Nic Pizzolatto.

“Hollywood is flat circle, Woody,” McConaughey muses in the clip. “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.”

Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson, starred in an ad encouraging filming in Texas. (Rick Kern/Jacky Godard/Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images/)

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY DITCHED HOLLYWOOD FOR TEXAS, TURNED DOWN $14.5M OFFER AFTER BEING DUBBED ‘ROM-COM DUDE’

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“A small fraction of Texas budget surplus to turn this state into the new Hollywood,” Harrelson later adds.

Quaid, Thornton and Zellweger add information and commentary about the benefits of filming in Texas, and they focus on the positive financial impact on the state to make their case.

Renée Zellweger and Billy Bob Thornton also appeared in the ad, appealing to the Texas state government to boost tax incentives for filming.  (Mike Marsland/Alberto E. Rodriguez)

“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!” McConaughey wrote in a post on X sharing the ad.

Quaid shared the ad on his Instagram as well.

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“Filming in Texas isn’t just about showcasing our stunning landscapes—it’s about creating jobs, boosting local economies, and building a thriving industry right here at home,” he wrote in the caption. “I was proud to collaborate with Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Renée Zellweger to shine a spotlight on how Texas can lead the way in film production. I was also proud to have the great Nic Pizzolatto direct this spot.”

He added, “Let’s keep the cameras rolling and the economy growing—because everything’s bigger (and better) in Texas!”

Productions like the Taylor Sheridan-created series “Yellowstone” and its spinoffs “1883,” “1923” and “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” starring Quaid, have all filmed in Texas, as well as his latest series, “Landman,” starring Thornton, with its story set in the state’s oil industry.

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Last week, the Texas senate announced that it had filed a budget that includes $498 million to revamp the state’s film incentives, “making Texas the movie capital of the world” per the office of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s press release. The budget consists of “$48 million in grants for small films and TV commercials, and up to $450 million in new tax credits, including Texas residency requirements for workers.”

Taylor Sheridan has been leading the Texas production boom with shows like “Yellowstone” and “Landman.” (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)

‘YELLOWSTONE,’ ‘TWISTERS’ SHOW FILMMAKERS WITH NO ‘HIDDEN AGENDA’ CHOOSING HEARTLAND OVER HOLLYWOOD

As Texas’ popularity grows with celebrity support, Hollywood itself has been struggling.

Filming in Los Angeles dropped to a historic low in 2024, down 5.6 percent from the previous year, per a report from FilmLA, the city’s film office, making it the least productive year on their record, second only to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. The report cited, “combined effects of runaway production, industry contraction and slower-than-hoped-for post-strike recovery” as the reason for the low numbers.

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The devastating fires that broke out in early January have also contributed to worry about the state of production in the city, prompting a petition called “Stay in LA.” 

A house burns as the Palisades Fire rages on in Mandeville Canyon, in Los Angeles, California, on January 11, 2025.  (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton )

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“We were already deeply worried about the livelihoods of Los Angeles area cast and crew, not to mention the countless small businesses suffering from production moving out of state and overseas. The fires have made a desperate situation worse. We are terrified that the city we love so much may lose its most vital resource: its people. We need a flood of new work to help our beloved city rebuild itself and ensure LA’s future viability as a place where craftspeople, film workers, and businesses thrive,” the organization, started by Alexandra Pechman and Sarah Adina Smith, states on their page. 

The petition asks state government leadership to uncap tax incentives for the next three years for productions filming in Los Angeles County and asks studios and streamers to pledge to film 10% more in the city over that same time period. It also praised Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to increase California’s own tax incentives for filming to $750 million. 

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Among those are celebrities like Keanu Reeves, Kevin Bacon, Olivia Wilde and many, many more being added every day, according to Deadline.

Keanu Reeves was one of many celebrities to sign a petition to keep production in Los Angeles. (Dave J Hogan)

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Last month, President Donald Trump appointed Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as Special Ambassadors to Hollywood, with the purpose of promoting business in the industry.

Mel Gibson is one of President Trump’s Hollywood ambassadors, and recently said on “Hannity” that he thinks the situation “can be fixed.” (Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage/Getty Images)

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While appearing on “Hannity,” Gibson addressed the issue of work leaving the city, saying, “[People] are going somewhere else, because it’s more cost-effective. There [are] just a lot of prohibitive regulations and things in the way that I think could be lifted. . . . But I think it can be fixed.”

“I know Newsom gave some tax incentives, but maybe not enough, because it’s still not working. There are other things that offset that,” he added later.





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Triple-digit heat returns to North Texas before weekend storms bring relief

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Triple-digit heat returns to North Texas before weekend storms bring relief


A building system of high pressure is bringing triple-digit temperatures back to North Texas, though the intense heat will be short-lived before a weekend weather shift brings relief and renewed chances of rain.

Wednesday forecast

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We expect partly to mostly sunny skies Wednesday, with high temperatures reaching near 100 degrees across much of the region. While hot and dry conditions will dominate, a low chance of scattered rain showers remains possible, primarily in areas east of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

The heat is expected to solidify Thursday as the upper-level ridge settles firmly over the area. We have removed all chances of precipitation from Thursday’s forecast, locking in dry conditions and an afternoon high temperature of 100 degrees.

However, relief is on the horizon for the upcoming weekend. The high-pressure ridge will lose its grip on North Texas as it begins to shift westward toward the desert southwest.

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Weekend forecast

By late Saturday and continuing into Sunday, the atmospheric shift will establish a northerly flow aloft. This pattern change is expected to funnel a series of weather disturbances into the region, triggering a return of widespread rain and thunderstorm opportunities.

The unsettled weather pattern is forecast to linger well into next week. The persistent cloud cover and moisture associated with the continuing rain chances will successfully suppress the heat, keeping afternoon highs closer to historical norms for this time of year.

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7-Day forecast

The Source: Information in this article is from the FOX 4 weather team.

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US immigration officer shoots and kills man in Texas

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US immigration officer shoots and kills man in Texas


Man, identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, is latest to be killed by ICE officers since President Trump took power.

A United States immigration agent fatally shot a man in Houston, Texas, while officers were attempting to stop his vehicle, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.

The man killed on Tuesday was identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, described by ICE as a Mexican national and “illegal alien” who attempted to evade arrest during a “targeted enforcement operation” by federal immigration officers.

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Ronaldo Salgado, who identified himself as Salgado Araujo’s son, told the Spanish-language television station Telemundo Houston that his father was shot while he was looking for workers to hire in the area.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo ignored commands to stop his vehicle, saying he “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer”. ⁠

In past shooting incidents, including the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, immigration officials had said that their officers were being attacked when the two were shot, claims vigorously disputed in both incidents.

Video footage captured on Tuesday by a surveillance camera from a nearby business and reviewed by the Reuters news agency showed a person lying on the ground beside a white van and surrounded by officers, in what appeared to be the aftermath of the shooting.

Salgado Araujo was targeted in an operation because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to DHS.

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Democratic US Representative Sylvia Garcia called for an independent and thorough investigation of ICE’s claims about the fatal shooting.

“All available footage, communications, and other evidence should be preserved and reviewed as part of a full and impartial investigation,” Garcia posted on social media.

Juan Proano, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, echoed Garcia’s calls for a transparent investigation into ICE’s actions.

“We don’t take DHS at their word at all,” Proano told The Associated Press news agency. “There should be an independent investigation, and they should release all the videos.”

There have been at least six fatal shootings by federal immigration officers since the start of President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement crackdown.

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Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was shot in the head by a federal immigration agent during a crackdown in Minneapolis. DHS also said Good was trying to hit the agent with her vehicle, which local officials and witnesses disputed, saying she was only trying to drive away.

The backlash from Good’s killing and other similar incidents led ICE to step back from some of its more controversial operations.

However, Tuesday’s deadly ⁠confrontation in Houston came amid a recent increase in the number of ICE arrests nationwide, with immigration officers picking up about 2,000 migrants a day last week, Reuters reported.



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Trump takes credit for Toyota moving some truck production from Mexico to Texas: ‘That’s what tariffs do’

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Trump takes credit for Toyota moving some truck production from Mexico to Texas: ‘That’s what tariffs do’


Toyota is planning a $3.6 billion expansion of its Texas truck assembly plant. President Donald Trump took credit for the investment.

On Monday, the automaker announced the multibillion-dollar investment to add a second vehicle assembly line at its San Antonio manufacturing campus to support production of the Tacoma pickup. Toyota said the expansion project would shift some of the midsize truck’s production from its Mexico plants to San Antonio over roughly 4 years. Toyota will still build some Tacoma models and the Corolla in Mexico.

While Toyota did not attribute the expansion to tariffs in its announcement and the company is not fully exiting production in Mexico, Trump said the fresh investment was a sign that his tariffs were working.

“It came over the wires that Toyota is moving out of Mexico into the United States, and building one of the biggest truck and car plants ever built,” Trump said on Tuesday during a visit to Ankara, Turkey. “It’s amazing. That’s what tariffs do, properly used.”

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Toyota said the investment will create 2,000 jobs and add 2.5 million square feet to the site, doubling the company’s Texas footprint by 2030.


Toyota's Texas plant on a sunny day.

Toyota says its plant will hire 2,000 new workers to support the assembly line. 

Toyota



On Monday, Ted Ogawa, president and CEO of Toyota Motor North America, said the investment reflected the company’s “confidence in the region’s workforce, innovation, and long-term growth potential.”

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The move gives Trump a high-profile example of a well-recognized company creating manufacturing jobs. His administration has argued that tariffs incentivize companies — particularly automakers — to reshore manufacturing in America and reduce reliance on foreign production.

Toyota’s announcement also comes amid major uncertainty for automakers with plants in North America. The USMCA — the trilateral free trade pact between the US, Canada, and Mexico struck during Trump’s first term — is under review after the US declined to renew the treaty in its current form on July 1. The Trump administration is reportedly pushing to change the agreement so 50% of all automotive parts and manufacturing would happen in the US.

Toyota also nodded to that trade uncertainty in its release, saying it remained committed to operations in all three countries while encouraging “a quick resolution to USMCA” to keep North America globally competitive.





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