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WEIMAR — Texas Film Corridor has announced a partnership with city of Weimar to develop a stateof- the-art film campus to bring the film industry to Texas in a press release, Thursday, July 10.
The Texas Film Corridor aims to bring the film industry to Texas in the upcoming decades by developing film campuses in Weimar, near the Dallas-Fort Worth metro and between Austin and San Antonio. The proposed film campus will feature 14 sound stages, production facilities, on-site lodging and more. Texas Film Corridor founder Dillon Davis said he started the company and initiative after struggling to become involved in film without traveling or doing business in Los Angeles or New York.
“Texas being the eighth largest economy in the world, why not? 2032, the film industry – and that’s streaming, TV and movies combined – is going to hit around the $2.8 trillion mark,” Davis said. “Why not us? Why not initiate something new in Texas? For the past 10 years, films have slipped into mindless slop that feels more like a scam to get me into the theatre than an actual movie with emotional intelligence and a moral message in it.”
Davis also listed Texas’ multiple biomes, diverse populations, robust economy and energy industry as strong foundations for the company’s goals. The Texas Film Corridor initially considered developing in Schulenburg in spring 2024 but, after facing opposition, switched to Weimar after Weimar Mayor Milton Koller reached out. Davis said he has been meeting frequently with Weimar Mayor Milton Koller since.
Koller declined to comment on the Texas Film Corridor’s announcement but spoke to the Fayette County Record in May 2024 about Creative Innovation Development, another film facility developer. Creative Innovation Development also discussed developing in Schulenburg and faced opposition. According to the Record, Koller also reached out to those developers.
“I know tomorrow is going to be different from today. I want to be proactive instead of reactive,” Koller said, quoted in the Fayette County Record. “…I’m trying to get Weimar to become a destination…Weimar is going to grow. We’re taking steps to make that happen and be prepared for when it gets here.”
According to Schulenburg City Administrator Tami Walker, the company’s original presentation in spring 2024 discussed three locations: the frontage road of Schulenburg, FM 2672 in Austin County and La Grange.
“Because I’ve done economic development before, it was definitely interesting. I thought it had some potential,” Walker said. “However, because it did not fall within the city limits, or there was some uncertainty on whether it was in the city limits, we did not know if the city [would provide] utilities or any sort of infrastructure to one of the sites.”
As the development would not be within city limits, Schulenburg and Texas Film Corridor stopped communicating, according to Walker. The first meeting also included bankers, investors and officials from Schulenburg, Fayette County and La Grange. Fayette County Precinct 4 Commissioner Drew Brossman, who attended, had concerns about the development changing farmland and the influx of people visiting for production.
“They’re trying to take a bunch of farmland and changing it. Trying to make a film studio and film out in the county next to people’s residences,” Brossman said. “…If you have 1,200 people coming in to do a movie, that’s going to interfere with the neighbors and their lifestyle.”
Brossman said that the county did not have the infrastructure to handle the studio. He claimed that similar projects in California have failed after a few years and compared the infrastructure needs to that of the Olympics – short term, expensive and unsustainable.
According to Texas Film Corridor’s press release, the development will be realized through transportation upgrades, utility enhancements, hospitality expansion and tourism development. The release also states that Texas Film Corridor is committed to hiring locally for the project’s 2,200 created jobs. Davis said the campus and its on-site lodging will boost the local economy and hospitality industry.
“For every dollar spent on production, $6.15 of GDP was generated, so as far as actual economic growth… everything gets boosted by film production showing up,” Davis said. “That main campus will not only service itself, not only service the state but also be a net export to the United States and the world. With that main campus, we’re looking at almost double the size of the town.”
The partnership aims to first create a Texas Enterprise Zone to enable Weimar to pull from state funds to create a tax incentive. The Texas Moving Image Incentive Program also gives money back to film and other productions that spend money in Texas. Combined, the zone and the program will refund 40-45% of production costs.
“Weimar embraced us with open arms—and truly appreciated that this is homegrown,” Davis said, quoted in the press release. “Weimar is strategically located right off I-10, and supported by forward- thinking local leadership, this partnership allows us to build a project that will define filmmaking for the next 50 years on Texas’s terms.”
